WASHINGTON - Buy these stamps, you will.

The Jedi master's stamp was originally part of a multi-stamp Star Wars set and is now available as an individual stamp following a public vote on which of that set should receive special attention.

Also on Thursday the post office released its annual Christmas and holiday stamps.

The set of four holiday stamps features classic wintertime knitting design imagery.

"The new holiday stamps provide another way for people to express warm winter greetings on all their mailings sent this season to family, friends or customers, " said Katherine C. Tobin, a member of the post office's governing board.

Inspired by traditional Norwegian sweaters, the stamps include a stag, a snow-dappled evergreen tree, a snowman sporting a top hat and a whimsical teddy bear.

The Christmas stamp is a traditional Madonna and child. This year's image is from Bernardino Luini's "Madonna of the Carnation," painted around 1515 and now part of the collection at the National Gallery of Art.

All of the new stamps carry the current 41-cent first-class rate and had their first day of issue ceremonies at a stamp show in new York.