A Tiny Canvas for Holiday Mirth
Personal Postage Is Giving Letter Traffic a Boost
Source: Washington Post
Written by Annie Gowen
It takes a certain amount of hubris to Photoshop your head onto the cupid from the famous U.S. Postal Service LOVE stamp and send it out into the world.
Nick Slepko, 28, a former Arlington resident, said “hubris is sort of implied” in his decision to create his own vanity postage stamp, using one of three Web sites that now offer do-it-yourself postage.
The vanity stamp program was launched by the Postal Service in May 2005 and was expected to have its most business this month.
Letter mail has been flagging, so the customized postage has been a boon for the Postal Service, said spokeswoman Joanne Veto. More than 20 million of the stamps have been sold, and the program’s trial period has been extended for another two years.
Some users say the stamps have become a tiny and unlikely canvas for the kind of family animus that often pervades the holidays — like faux-cheery holiday letters of years past.
As Slepko put it: “What better way to say dysfunction than through the post office?”