Holiday Delights Forever First Class Postage Stamps

Kirsten Ulve drew these four holiday icons in a traditional red, green and white palette, with the flat graphic treatment of Scandinavian folk art and vintage ornaments behind it - a prancing reindeer among them. Folk motifs were designed to be painted small on wooden objects, which is why they hold up at stamp size better than most seasonal illustration does.

The set is festive without being religious, which is the deciding factor for a mixed card list or for a business sending seasonal mail to clients. Booklets of 20 with the four designs repeating, so a household sending four cards to one address can vary them. Households working a full list buy several books. Ulve is better known for editorial illustration than for holiday work, which is probably why the set avoids the usual seasonal shorthand. Anything left after December keeps its value: a Forever stamp mails a one-ounce letter in March as readily as in December.