29c Christmas Stocking Stamps - Pack of 10

Ten 29c Christmas Stocking Stamps
Issued: October 20, 1994
Scott Catalog #2872 or #2872b

10 Mint, unused postage stamps with original gum as issued by the Post Office. These stamps are genuine and valid to use as postage for current mailing. Be sure to use enough total postage to meet the current postal rate for the item you are mailing.

Great for special mailings like weddings, birthdays, valentines, and events. Also good to use for scrapbooking or displaying in a small picture frame. It's a miniature work of art.

About this stamp:
Hanging stockings by the fireplace became a custom in the early days of eighteenth-century England. When the English took over the colony of New Amsterdam (which later became New York), the Dutch colonists adopted the custom, since wooden shoes were no longer worn in the new colony. Long, heavy, woolen stockings however, were worn by both boys and girls and so on Saint Nicholas Eve, these were hung upon the mantle instead.

Because they stretched, these stockings could hold lots of surprises. Filled with small presents, candy, and fruit they became mysterious-looking, bumpy objects. A new coin was always placed in the toe, followed by an orange – the first a symbol of wealth, the second a symbol of the return of the sun in the coming year. If a child were naughty, he might find coal in his stocking instead.