diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ef4781e..aec11a7 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
-    <version>2.16.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.16.1</version>
   </parent>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-datatypes-misc-parent</artifactId>
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
index aa3638e..bff851d 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@ Modules:
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+2.16.1 (24-Dec-2023)
+
+No changes since 2.16.0
+
 2.16.0 (15-Nov-2023)
 
 #37: (jsonp/jsr-353): Fix class path scanning on each deserialization