Canada Post’s Hanukkah stamp is more than a seasonal tradition – it’s a celebration of culture and heritage.
This year, the design captures the warmth of family and the enduring power of tradition during the winter holidays. Created by artist Jacqueline Kott-Wolle, who transforms photographs into paintings, the artwork is based on an old family photo. The painting, commissioned for this stamp issue, features three generations of Kott-Wolle’s family gathered in their North Toronto home, lighting a hanukkiyah. Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site – in 165 BCE, and conversations about upholding this tradition remain central to modern Jewish life.
“There’s an internal debate,” explains Kott-Wolle. “Is Judaism something you are born with or something that you cultivate through traditions like lighting the hanukkiyah? That was a feeling I wanted to capture.”
The miracle of light is remembered each year by lighting the hanukkiyah, which represents the faith and resilience at the heart of the holiday. A new candle is lit on each of Hanukkah’s eight nights, using a “helper” candle, called a shamash.
“The tactile memories – holding the shamash, the smell of latkes throughout the home, the way candles melt and get stuck in the hanukkiyah and have to be dug out – those stay with you,” says Kott-Wolle. “That is how tradition is handed down from one generation to the next.” The stamp also represents the renewed hope and opportunity that Canada provided to her family after her parents miraculously survived the Holocaust. “My parents had experienced so much devastation and lost everything – close relatives, belongings – before arriving to Canada as refugees,” she says, recalling a conversation she once had with her father. “He told me, ‘I’ve been thinking about my life. Canada has been really good to us.’”
This year, Hanukkah takes place from nightfall on December 4 to nightfall on December 12.
Product: HANUKKAH 2026 BOOKLET OF 6 Permanent™ stamps
Article: 414334111
Quantity: 50,000 booklets of 6 Permanent™ stamps
Printing process: Lithography in 5 colours
Price: $7.44
Product: HANUKKAH 2026 – Official First Day Cover
Article: 414334131
Quantity: 4,000
Cancellation site: Toronto, ON
Price: $2.24
Design: Hélène L’Heureux
Art: Jacqueline Kott-Wolle
Printer: Lowe-Martin
Canada Post’s 2026 Hanukkah stamp celebrates the traditions that bring generations together
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