Christmas Seals 1940-68 Selection

Note: Stamp positions will vary, some are straight edges as printed

In 1904 the world’s first Christmas Seal was issued, bearing the likeness of the Danish Queen and the word Julen (Christmas). Over 4 million were sold in the first year at DKK 0.02 per seal.

During the first six years, enough funds were raised to build the Christmas Seal Sanatorium in Kolding, which was opened in 1911.  The Danish Christmas Seal Committee decided at that time to put all future collected funds to use in building and operating convalescent homes for children.

They were introduced to the United States by Emily Bissell in 1907, after she had read about the 1904 Danish Christmas Seal in an article. Bissell hoped to raise money for a sanitarium on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware. Local Christmas Seals have existed alongside national issues in the US since 1907, and are catalogued by Christmas Seal & Charity Stamp Society.

By 1908, Bissell's idea grew to a national program administered by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT) and the American National Red Cross. The seals were sold at post offices, initially in Delaware at 1 cent each. By 1920, the Red Cross withdrew from the arrangement and sales were conducted exclusively by the NASPT, then known as the National Tuberculosis Association (NTA).

After World War II with the development of the antibiotic streptomycin TB became a curable disease. The NTRDA became the American Lung Association in 1973, though the 1974 seals continue to show the NTRDA inscription on the sheet margin.

In 1987 the American Lung Association acquired a trademark for the term "Christmas Seals" to protect their right to be the sole US national fundraising Association to issue them.