This First Day Cover bears the 1966 5¢ Christmas stamp reproducing Hans Memling’s Madonna and Child from the National Gallery of Art. The cover is postmarked November 1, 1966, in Christmas, Michigan, and carries a colorful cachet reading “Peace on Earth Good Will to All Men.”
By the mid-1960s the United States had established an annual Christmas stamp program, begun in 1962, to meet heavy holiday mail volume while celebrating seasonal art and tradition.
A notable feature is the Christmas, Michigan cancel—49862—a small Upper Peninsula town whose name makes its postmark especially popular with collectors of holiday and topical philately.
This clean, well-centered FDC makes an attractive addition to any Christmas, religious art, or modern U.S. stamp collection.
