Christmas Stamps 2000

I'm working on a presentation to give to local stamp clubs about US Christmas stamps. Since there are so many designs issued in the last 50+ years with many varieties, I have decided to concentrate on "FIRSTS" such as the the First One, the First Tagged version, the First Booklet Version, the First Non-Denominated version, the First ATM version, the First Self-adhesive version, and so forth. I try to keep my presentations to no more than 20 minutes. However, I do encourage questions and comments during the presentation.

I find these break up my presentation nicely so that usually the whole program length is between 30 and 45 minutes, just like a television program which has 4-5 segments interspersed with commercials. I consider comments and questions from the audience to be like the commercials. It allows the viewers a short time to sit back and relax and then refocus.

However, I do have a question, I notice that there were no Christmas stamps issued in 2000. Was this because the 33¢ White House 200th Anniversary stamp (Scott #3445) was issued instead?

Here is an explanation:

"For the first time in nearly 40 years, the U.S. is not issuing a Christmas stamp this year.

The U.S. Postal Service - which is only 29 years old itself - announced in early April it is skipping the 38-year tradition in 2000, in order to "continue prudently managing inventories."

http://www.virtualstampclub.com/noxmas.html

Glenn, good luck with your presentation. Sounds interesting!