Good grief! The U.S. Postal Service began selling stamps Thursday that commemorate the 50th anniversary of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
The collection includes 10 forever stamps of scenes from the holiday special, which first aired Dec. 9, 1965. Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts said there are 500 million of the commemorative stamps that will be sold in books of 20 for $9.80 each.
“It’s very popular, and we’re very excited to be bringing these stamps to the marketplace for the upcoming holiday season,” Betts said.
A ceremony for the stamps was to be held Thursday morning at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, Calif. Postmaster General Megan Brennan and family members of Schulz, who created the “Peanuts” comic strip, are expected to attend.
Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the “Peanuts” strip’s debut in the Tribune and six other newspapers. The last original “Peanuts” strip was published Feb. 13, 2000, the day after Schulz died, and the strip has been in reruns since. The strip is published in about 1,400 publications worldwide.
This is not the first “Peanuts” stamp. The Postal Service issued a Snoopy stamp May 17, 2001, Betts said.
Meanwhile, Charlie Brown and the gang will appear in “The Peanuts Movie,” which is scheduled to hit theaters Nov. 6.
