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The Postal Store®

Christmas Cookies

Series: Holiday Celebration: Holiday

First Day of Issue Date: October 20, 2005

First Day of Issue Location: New York, NY

About This Stamp

In 2005 the U.S. Postal Service celebrated the winter holiday season with four stamps featuring festively decorated cookies. Photographer Sally Andersen-Bruce of New Milford, Connecticut, recruited a team of experts — including Tommy Simpson, of Washington, Connecticut (who also made the cookie cutters); Emily Diffrient-Crumpton, of Austin, Texas; and Rebecca Vermilyea, of Bethlehem, Connecticut — to help bake and decorate the charming cookies shown on these stamps.

Art Director

Derry Noyes

For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.

Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.

Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.

Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.

Stamp Artist

Sally Andersen-Bruce

Sally Andersen-Bruce has been the president and sole proprietor of her photography business for more than 30 years. Based in Connecticut, her assignments have taken her all over the world for clients such as IBM, Polaroid, AT&T, Pepsi, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal.

Her portfolio includes photographic content for corporations, institutions, and publications, focusing on executives, products, food, architecture, financial reports, and websites.

In addition to her commercial work, she has collaborated with several museums, including the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont; and the Strong Museum in Rochester, New York.

Andersen-Bruce’s photographs have appeared on numerous U.S. postage stamps, among them Classic American Dolls (1997), Neuter and Spay (2002), Nutcrackers (2008), Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet (2010), Weather Vanes (2012), Gingerbread Houses (2013), and Diwali, first issued in 2016. Most recently, her photograph appeared on the 2025 Lunar New Year • Year of the Snake stamp.

First Day of Issue Ceremony

First Day of Issue Date: October 20, 2005
First Day of Issue Location: New York, NY

Order the Putting a Stamp on the American Experience Prestige Booklet!

Highlighting the popular series and subjects that give the U.S. stamp program its remarkable range and depth, this 32-page prestige booklet is only the fourth ever issued by the Postal Service.