The Post Office Is Releasing a New Hanukkah Stamp this Year

The design for the U.S. Postal Service 2026 Hanukkah stamp was revealed last month — and the story behind it has us kvelling.

The first Hanukkah stamp was released in 1996. (It’s worth noting that the first Christmas stamp was released in 1962.) That design — a colorful, collaged menorah that was jointly issued with Israel — served as the de facto Hanukkah Stamp until 2004, when the USPS changed to a roughly bi annual design update. This year’s stamp is a delightful illustrated dreidel on a turquoise background, created by freelance illustrator and illustration professor Lisa Perrin, whose rabbi commented “KVELLING KVELLING KVELLING” when Lisa posted the stamp on Instagram.

Perrin submitted six different illustrations of menorahs and dreidels, and arrived at the final design with help from USPS Art Director Antonio Alcalá, who created the 2024 Hanukkah stamp and whose mother escaped from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport.

In their official announcement, the USPS notes that the folk art style of the dreidel reflects Perrin’s Jewish heritage. “Jewish folk art has long been a source of inspiration for me,” Perrin told Kveller. “My Master’s Illustration thesis was inspired by Ashkenazi folk tales, symbolism and language. I love looking at historical ketubah designs, and traditional Jewish paper cutting and woodcarving. For my thesis I hand lettered my favorite Yiddish expressions and created illustrations inspired by life on the shtetl. Any time I can connect my creative work to my personal culture and heritage it means a lot.”

This particular work had an even more personal connection: Perrin’s father, Michael Perrin, is a lifelong stamp collector. “[He] has been urging me to pursue illustrating a stamp for my entire creative career — and not subtly,” Lisa said. “After years of nudging, I reached out to some art directors for the United States Postal Service, introduced myself and work, and explained that a stamp would mean a lot to my father. Remarkably, that worked!” Lisa told her USPS contacts that something Jewish would be especially meaningful. “Thus, the Hanukkah stamp was born.”

Naturally, Lisa’s father was verklempt. “A U.S. federal stamp honoring Hanukkah drawn by my Lisa!” he kvelled to Kveller. “Eight days is not enough!”

This year’s Hanukkah stamp will be available Sept. 29. Lisa’s work can be found on her website, where you can also contact her and beg her to bring back her beautiful Jewish food packaging calendar.