USPS 2013 Spray On Holiday Postmarks

So this is the 2013 spray-on holiday postmark, purporting to represent a gift-wrapped package, I suppose:



With an imprint like that, why does the USPS even bother?

On a related matter, does anyone know when this holiday postmark first came into use? I would assume on or about Monday, December 2nd, but I'm not sure. Has anyone received any earlier examples?

Wt1, I have received several cards since the day after Thanksgiving, but could not read the cancel. Since they were all from people in the Metro Atlanta area, I guess they were cancelled with the Atlanta Metro 300 cancel. Today I received a card from Talladega, AL with the Birmingham AL 350 cancel and the cancel was more readable than your example. However it is still hard to read the "Seasons Greetings".
Before this cancel they used something that looked like a new fluorescent lightbulb (?) but I have not seen a clear one and I can not read the two line slogan at all!

Peter

My first that I have it Dec 2 out of Johnstown , Pa. I will have to say it is a very nice ink jet cancel, dark and fully detailed down to the seasons greeting that runs on the lower right bottom. This is one of the best they have done in years.

Though yours looks like ink was a little low and not nearly even close to looking like mine.

Maybe I'll get some better examples of the Season's Greetings postmark as the holiday season nears.




Although this isn't a particularly good example, this is the CFL lightbulb slogan cancel the USPS used during the Fall of 2013 ... it's supposed to read "ENERGY ACTION/MONTH" (which was designated October 2013):

This is what mine looks like.

I think I got one of last year's cancels!