it's that time of year again as the u s postal service releases their holiday stamps this year stamps are inspired by for christmas carols jingle bells deck the halls silent night and saying nicholas when you go to the post office i mean it's great you're able to go and purchase a new stamp with a christmas carols that really help you connect with your family and friends through these wonderful christmas you know songs that we're all very familiar with and it's a very special specifically for a christmas stamp issue so out of two hundred and forty dollars that i've attended except for and what makes these special i mean a stamp is a the st day of issues or birthdays for a postage stamp so it's always a celebration there's always cool individuals who come out great speeches see no great camaraderie and you get to add awesome items here collection too so it's a special moment for stamp collectors and also you're sort of changing hats and changing jobs  we deliver millions of packages cards and letters to festive well wishers across the country it's a holiday tradition and we're very proud to be a part of that i'm excited to continue another of the postal services long traditions and that celebrating the holidays with new stamps this year selections are inspired by some of america's favorite christmas carols sung and adored by children there translated into dozens of languages these timeless classics are so recognizable i bet you would know which christmas carol i mean if i may be saying a few words and ask for a little tone jolly old think nicholas the lyrics were adapted from the eight hundred and sixty five poem secret by author and poet emily huntington miller all right how about this one oh all is hundred thank you for pulling all that off with my toe and the last but not least my personal favorite published an eight hundred and fifty seven by james pierpoint and the st song ever played in space in a one bells yes i think we have a few professional carol singers in the audience today to my left and also out here so i thank you for supporting me on those the christmas carols stamps we unveiled today translate the lyrics of those four holiday favorites deck the halls silent night jolly old saint nicholas and jingle bells into these festive stamps the late howard pain as marian mentioned was the art director and artist steve mccracken created the original artwork st sketched in pencil and then rendered as a digital illustration familiar lines from each song highlight the individual stamps with images that represent each carols theme one how many items arrive in mailboxes with these stamps i expect recipients will be humming the tune of the carol lyrics they see either in their heads or out loud so today we are honored to deliver some holiday cheer with these beautiful stamps thank the impact of holiday themed stamps they really carry the best cards and connect americans to each other during the holiday season i personally send out about two hundred and fifty dollars christmas cards each year to family friends people i meet during the year and it really is that connection that is important and critical to things it's also one of my friends to pick the cool stamp that actually matches the person who's receiving it sometimes they have to dive a little bit backwards to  find that special stamp for that holiday card so the st st day of issue ceremony that i attended for a christmas stamp was actually the christmas wreath stamps in one thousand nine hundred and eighty eight they were issued in christmas michigan that's in the u p a if you know what i'm talking about is a very tiny town so small that the post office next to it is the one who actually manage everything that happened for the event the ceremony was held at a local high school it was an all hands on deck every single classroom showed up into that the main gymnasium for the st day ceremony singing christmas carols the whole town showed out it was a wonderful thing and it's wonderful to have you guys here today singing and kicking off the christmas season for us so it's hard to believe is that event was nearly twenty years ago today and i likely was playing hooky from my school to go to that ceremony don't tell so to my surprise then in one thousand nine hundred and nine i went to the new christmas dear postage stamps that came out in rudolph wisconsin actually even closer to where i grew up so it was fun repeating that in a different chris smith steam town and i also skip down  a school that day too and i'm coming clean on this so then i also got to thinking i was flipping through the scott catalog before you know right as i'm working on the speech going well gosh how many christmas stamps of i have been to and i was like oh sure enough i've been to quite a whimsical santas and reindeer ornaments cookies snowflakes geometric snowflakes knitted holiday designs nutcrackers wrapping paper evergreen forever stamps baubles slay holy family christmas windows songbirds and snow winter fun holiday wreath gingerbread houses madonna chant madonna and child and the holy family i was like oh man if you're keeping count today is the the snowy day bike as well jack it's one winter morning peter woke up and looked out the window snow had fallen during the night it covered everything as far as he could see after breakfast he put on his nose suit and ran outside the snow was piled up very high along the street to make a path for walking crunch crunch crunch his feet sank into the snow he walked with his toes pointed out like this he walked with his toes pointing in like that then he dragged his feet slowly to make tracks and he found something sticking out of the snow that made a new track it was as dark as a stick that was just right for smacking as snow covered tree down fell the snow pole up on top of peter's head he thought it would be fun to join the big boys in their snowball fight but he knew he wasn't old enough not jet so he made a smiling snowman and he made angels he pretended he was a mountain climber he climbed up a great big tall heaping don't of snow and slid oh all the way down he picked up a handful of snow and another and still another he patted round and firm and put this snow ball in his pocket for tomorrow thin he wind  house he told his mother all about his adventures while she took off his wet socks and then he thought and thought and thought before he got into bed he looked in his pocket his pocket was empty the snowball wasn't there he felt very sad while he slumped he dreamed that the sun had melted all the snow away but when he woke up his dream was gone the snow was still everywhere you know was bawling after breakfast he called to his friend from across the hall and they went out together into the deep deep sno s postal service showcased as read jack keats mostly love story the snowy day written in illustrated by the celebrated children's author it is one of the th century's most prominent to stay you know perfectly round and solid when he breaks in the hose and then you see him sliding down the mountain the snow d and you realize these two so young to play with the older neighborhood kids and then of course he's making snow angels that's another  one that said i fit in i belong here it is in credit so today we're going to share these groundbreaking images on stamps so on behalf of the postal service i'm going to invite our speakers are the guests to come up today years the library of congress includes the snowy day in a list of eighty eight dollars books that have shaped america i agree that not only is this estimation justified but i cannot think of another picture book that has had such a large positive impact on how we as individuals think of ourselves as part of a culture that includes others in this book and those that followed as we featured a diverse group of children in an urban working class neighborhood which actually served as the basis for sesame street also a breakthrough comment on our culture to this day as is books are considered the gold standard for what diverse put picture books for children should be we still need to see our diverse population reflected more in every aspect of our public life and i am proud that the u s p s the united states postal service has chosen peter in his red snowsuit to represent every child in their winter stand for but he would have been especially strolled with the stamps when he was a boy and already determined to become an artist despite his parents there e strong discouragement because they thought he would starve certainly star as you said himself a goal to create a stamp so beautiful and so perfect that it would pass as real and he spent hours hours laboring on every single detail including cutting the small serrated images that are the conic symbol of of stamps from around the world then he sauntered down to the school yard and he showed the stamp to a kid who was an avid stamp collector and the young stamp collector belforest he coveted this unique stamp and offered a few of his most precious specimens if answer would only trade with him as rock very reluctantly agreed and then he flew home in a panic at what he had done and a few sure enough a few hours later the stamp collector was pounding out his front door t you cheated me as really at least with the real stamps under the closed door and never did anything like that again but now with the help of the u celebrated his th birthday my father as remez when they were in junior high school and they remained best friends until as a guide these boys were impoverished children of immigrants and neither felt he had a chance any chance at a bright future but has to be a world famous children's book author and illustrator and my father is a world famous scientist whose work is among other things the basis for the more efficient solar cells and panels that are now being developed the lives of these two young boys are a testament to what children can overcome despite great odds if they are only for everyone but i really want to thank the united states postal service for taking on this task and for their pope who pushed this and i know that as a jackie to be so proud of all of us my feelings are absolutely wonderful i revolutionised or changed race relations and it helped a lot of people to feel good about themselves i mean because when i st read this book in the s you didn't find picture books with children of color on the cover as long as a black the st of all i just want to say that we are so proud to be a part of the celebration because this book in particular was written by an author who grew up and was raised in brooklyn and who understood the importance of all children seeing themselves in literature and so that we should be celebrating this kind of revolutionary thinking which in one thousand nine hundred and sixty two truly was is really exactly the kind of work that libraries should be doing and are doing every day as are jackie understood that all children need to see themselves in books and he was the st one to feature an african american child on the cover of a mainstream look and that was groundbreaking at the time that it happened  and we would hope that many folks follow it's taken a while but as for jackie it's the snowy day continues to be the stellar example of books that said yes let's put a child of color on the front of that book and now we have a stamp to reinforce and celebrate  yes i wrote a poem that was really an extension of a book that i've written about the life and times of as are jackie it's the title of that book is a poem for peter and i wrote an ode today a love letter to peter that iconic character  red snowsuit just saying that you peter will be bringing readings of tight group of greetings of love tidings of joy to so many especially this holiday season and i think the stamp is beautiful i am ready to put it on the upper left corner of many on the lopes to send many good wishes billy as are jack kids foundation supports public schools and public libraries with money for arts and literacy programs across the country and tell me how do you feel that the snowy day transformed race relations or will it transformed a sense of what it means to be part of a whole culture the reason this book was groundbreaking was because it was embrace by the culture as a whole it was not considered an nisha book it was considered a book for children  all children and that in and of itself was a change in it was a sea change it was a sense of a different way of looking through the window and it took time it took you know decades but i believe that the children who grew up reading this book and then reading more and more books with diverse characters in it did change then the way they grew up to  it was it was a very natural thing it was into it wasn't a particularly an effort it was it came out of years of illustrating other people's book just never seen a book that featured an african american child and asked who really identified with all children and one of the one of the commonalities between great children's book writers is it very really there was no question there was no question he couldn't get a job and changed his name and he got jobs and the change of name i was preceded by experiments to see if i send in my resume with my original me when i get an interview versus what why i get an interview if i use this other name and the other name got the interview so think he would be as or was very modest and part of his thrill would also be amazement basement i'm krista hart reporting on a snowy day stand here am brooklyn new