Definitive Or Commemorative

Christmas stamps have always been in a kind of category of their own. The question is, are they . . .

A Definitive or A Commemorative?



What about the United States Love stamps?

My 44 cents, says definitely not a definitive.

Definitive has an ongoing use. Commemorative relates to a specific person or event and is of limited duration.

IMO, I would categorize Christmas stamps as "commemorative", as they "commemorate" the Christmas (er, Holiday to those who prefer the generic term surrounding the period from Thanksgiving to the New Year, no matter what your religious affiliation, if any). The same can be said for the occasional stamps that are issued for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year, etc.

The Love stamp is a bit of a gray area to me. I remember the first Love Stamp (8 cent Scott #1475) which I always categorized as a commemorative. Since the current trend is toward wedding invitations and Love stamps printed in various denominations for mailing invitations and the return of RSVP cards, I guess they could now be categorized as more of a regular issue. (BTW, I wonder what the new "Forever" stamps are going to do to this series--will they issue a denominated stamp for the invitation and "Forever" stamps for the return of the RSVP cards?).

Just my opinion. I'm sure there are others who will chime in as well.

Commemorative, definitively.

This is actually a very interesting question, although the majority of US collector will respond commemorative (including myself).

Scott and USPS classify them as commemoratives. But interestingly, Minkus classifies them as regular issue!

Of course, Minkus catalogs are no longer published...

I agree, Commemorative

They are issued for a very limited time so I go with commemorative also.

Definitively commemorative...... ?

I would kindly wish to disagree. A X-mas stamps is closer to a definitive then a commemorative in so much as how it is sold & distributed for postal use.

I would prefer to assign these issues into another category "Annuals".
They are issued each year to commemorate an annual event religious, secular, cultural or traditional.

Remember commemorative usually commemorate a singular current event/person or anniversary of an event/person.

isn't Christmas an anniversary of an event/person? LOL

warrehouse.......if folks just went and established a new category according to their own views then we would have no classification system in philately.

weavus13 to the forum.

Christmas is an event/person, but you never know it by the stamps that are issued that rarely adorn Jesus & Mary.

A glossary in the back of a Postal Service Guide to US Stamps defines a "commemorative" as:

"Stamps that honor anniversaries, important people, special events, or aspects of national culture."

Don't know if it helps to clarify or not, but I would say Christmas stamps fall under this definition.

That same source, defines "definitives" as:

"Regular issues of postage stamps, usually sold over long periods of time. They tend to be fairly small and printed in large quantites, often more than once."

Moonbird, Thanks! You do not see the merit in the possibility?

Most often these stamps are packaged & sold in similar fashion as a definitive issue.
Minkus for years listed X-mas as definitive. Early X-mas stams were precanceled, principally the domain of definitives.

If it was so clear-cut this tread would never have started.

GB Christmas stamps always used to be in a commemorative size. Now they are the same size as machin definitives just to add to the confusion.