Happy Birthday Stamps

For the first time in five years, the Postal Service will issue a stamp designed especially for birthday invitations, cards, letters, and packages. The stamp features an oversized white birthday cake with bright and colorful candles and capital letters spelling out HAPPY BIRTH DAY!, on three lines.

Birthdays have been celebrated for thousands of years. Originally, birthdays in the U.S. were celebrated by the wealthy or for a national hero like George Washington. It was not until the late 19th century that everyday American children began celebrating birthdays as well, largely a result of increased disposable income and changes in parenting philosophies.

This is the fifth birthday stamp issued by USPS. The first Happy Birthday stamp was issued in 1987, featuring a slice of cake with a lit candle. In 1988, a second Special Occasions booklet included a Happy Birthday stamp depicting a colorful row of candles. Birthdays reappeared as a subject on U.S. postage in 2002 with a stamp featuring the words “Happy Birthday” amid a smattering of festive confetti. In 2021, a stamp inspired by a childhood birthday party featured a piñata, birthday hat, cake, candles, and balloons.

Birthdays are special days. After all, they only come around once a year. While blowing out the candles and opening the presents are fun, it’s often the people who make them memorable. Just ask artist Lisa Congdon, who says her favorite birthday was a surprise.

“When I turned 12, my mother threw me a surprise birthday party with all of my close friends at my favorite restaurant,” she says. “It is a really special memory because I felt very loved and very genuinely surprised!”

While that birthday party was a surprise, Congdon shouldn’t have been surprised by being asked to create the art for the new Happy Birthday stamp after her work on the Cheers! design for the award-winning Pinback Buttons (2024) stamp issuance.

Art director Greg Breeding thought Lisa Congdon’s style would be perfect for the stamp.

“Lisa’s work is most always colorful and bold, and her hand-drawn lettering is fun and inventive,” Breeding says. “She has a joyful spirit that comes out in her work.”

This is the first new birthday stamp in five years. It features a bright and colorful birthday cake offering an additional touch of fun and good cheer.

“My hope for the stamp was that it would have a bold and colorful impact and be fun and appealing to both children and adults,” Breeding says.

Congdon was thrilled to get the chance to work with Breeding again.

“He’s really good at providing guidance for possible directions but also leaving me to infuse my own creative point of view,” she says. “The most important thing I learned is that whatever you create, it has to be readable at a small scale, which is really challenging.”

After going through a few iterations of the cake, they settled on the final design.

“I think the simple but graphic birthday cake works so well at stamp size,” Breeding says. “That Lisa was able to design the lettering in a fun way inside the cake feels fresh and inviting.”

The colors used to create the eye-catching design were important to Congdon, which she described as “French blue, orangey yellow, tomato red, and bubble gum pink.”

“We had to play around with colors to make sure all the letters popped properly off the tiny stamp, but I think we nailed it in the end,” Congdon says.

While as a kid Breeding would get big frosted cakes — like on the stamp — those days are behind him.

“Today I’d choose carrot cake!”

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