A Tiny Canvas for Holiday Mirth

In the wonky world of stamps, aficionados and collectors, known as philatelists, are debating whether these stamps are good or bad. Vanity stamps actually are -- purists hasten to note -- metered postage, not official U.S. stamps. The Postal Service still has rules for official postage, such as that someone has to be dead for five years before qualifying to appear on a stamp.

"We take an inclusive view of the hobby," said Kenneth P. Martin, the deputy executive director of the American Philatelic Society. "There are always traditionalists who will complain, but we think one of the great things about stamp collecting is that you determine what you want to collect."

The Postal Service tried to launch a customized stamp program in 2004, after a presidential commission -- some of whose members realized that mining America's tendency to self-aggrandizement might be profitable -- recommended exploring customized postage. In 2005, the Postal Service handled 211 billion pieces of mail. That could drop to 181 billion by 2017, the commission said.

The idea died after just six weeks, however, because the Smoking Gun Web site found holes in the Postal Service's screening system. Photos of Jimmy Hoffa, Slobodan Milosevic and Monica Lewinsky's stained blue dress made it past the screening. More stringent standards were established for the official pilot last year.

Mark Delman, vice president of marketing for Endicia's PictureItPostage line, said that images for stamps are most often rejected because they use corporate logos or a celebrity likeness. But there also is the occasional randy shot that gets rejected.

"Someone submitted their Halloween photo," Delman said. "They were unclothed except for their lower regions. They had an animal affixed there -- it was a sheep. It was really awful."

Overt political statements are verboten, too.

The folks at Zazzle, for example, recently rejected a photo of a youngster with a T-shirt that read "Make Cupcakes Not War."

Los Angeles resident Shana Weiss said that the snapshot of her 8-year-old son, Jesse, was actually turned down by all three postage companies, although a photo of her 5-year-old wearing a "Happy Feet" ski hat was approved.

"Turns out the message of peace in the holiday season is too controversial," she said. "Go figure."

Husband-and-wife discord sometimes surfaces.

When Ted S. Letofsky, 38, of Brooklyn Park, Minn., insisted that the family cat, Furble, be included in their Christmas letter, wife Hannah responded by creating a composite of a crazy-eyed kitty complete with neon antlers. "My wife is extraordinarily ambivalent about the cat," Letofsky explained. "She sort of inherited him along with me."

Sarah Stephens, 29, the content manager for Endicia's postage operation, reviews the hundreds of photos the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company receives each day. While looking at so many photos of kids and pets is "festive," she said, it sometimes causes her to ponder such questions as: Why do so many people put reindeer antlers on their pets, anyhow?

As the images float by, she said, she sees "an America that loves to show off things precious to them. They enjoy their children. They enjoy their family. They want the world to see them."