The U.S. Postal Service each year prints a spiritual stamp for Christmas cards. Other designs are also available for various holidays of the season, such as Hanukkah.

(Editor's Note: This information was pulled from the www.usps.com website.)

The Holy Family stamp, first issued in 2012 and still available online, celebrates Christmas with a scene from the Nativity story that reminds us of the joys of the season: family, togetherness, and the birth of the baby Jesus. It continues the U.S. Postal Service's tradition of issuing beautiful and timeless Christmas stamps and will be a treasured addition to cards and letters sent during this season of goodwill and sharing.

Reenactments and commemorations of this episode are enduring traditions. Medieval mystery plays — dramas based on biblical stories that were performed in towns across Europe from the 14th to 16th centuries — featured the Flight into Egypt as part of their Nativity cycle. Christmas pageants today reenact the Holy Family's flight, with portrayals ranging from simple children's plays to elaborate live nativity scenes. Other celebrations include the Feast of the Holy Family, observed by the Roman Catholic Church during the Christmas season, and the Coptic Orthodox Church's Feast of the Escape of the Holy Family to Egypt, commemorated each year in June.

Legends about the Flight into Egypt have inspired artists from Raphael to Rembrandt to imagine and illustrate the Holy Family's journey. Their flight has been rendered in other forms as well: stained glass windows, frescoes, sculptures, wall hangings, and woodcarvings, among others.

The escape of the Holy Family is also commemorated in music, with compositions such as the 19th-century work The Childhood of Jesus by Hector Berlioz, or the traditional Irish carol "The Flight into Egypt." Composer John Harbison won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his work for chorus and orchestra, Flight into Egypt, Sacred Ricercar.

Working together, art director William J. Gicker, designer Greg Breeding, and artist Nancy Stahl created an evocative new image of the Holy Family. The stamp illustration shows Joseph leading a donkey that carries Mary and Jesus, guided by a star shining in the twilight of a desert sky.

The U.S. Postal Service® in 2014 celebrates one of the most beloved stories of the Nativity with an evocative and elegant new stamp, Christmas Magi.

The stamp art illustrates the traditional tale of the Magi, who came bearing gifts for Jesus. The three regal figures sit atop a trio of bedecked and harnessed camels, the animals almost at the summit of a small hill. Guiding them is a large, dazzling star shining in the sky. The colors in the sky range from a rose near the horizon, darkening to a rich purple at the top, suggesting that the travelers are moving through the desert at dawn. The figures are silhouetted against the background, with the details of their headdresses and the camels' saddles just visible in the brightening light. The star, located in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, is a brilliant white.

The story of the Magi appears in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2. There is little detail about the Magi in the Gospel. Matthew called them "Magi," a term for Persian priests, astrologers, or scholars. The Gospel never refers to a specific number; the number three was likely influenced by the number of gifts left for the child-gold, frankincense, and myrrh. However, the earliest traditions are inconsistent with regard to how many Magi there were. The Eastern tradition favored twelve Magi, while in the West, several early Church fathers accepted the number three.

Over the centuries, other details have been added to the story, including the names of the Magi: Gaspar, or Casper; Melchior; and Balthasar. One early reference to their names comes in a seventh century work attributed to St. Bede. He gave the Magi the attributes of men at different stages of life, elderly, young, and middle-aged: Melchior, an old man with white hair and a long beard; Caspar, young and beardless with a ruddy complexion; and Balthasar, with black skin and a heavy beard. Later traditions added the notion that the three came from Europe, Asia, and Africa, thus completing their symbolism as representatives of the world, as Europeans knew it at the time.

Represented in art and music since the earliest centuries of the church, the Magi are a much-loved part of the Christmas tradition. The story is retold many times each season in hymns and in Christmas pageants and performances.

Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp; Nancy Stahl was the artist.

The Christmas Magi stamp and the Holy Family stamp have been issued as Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.