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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The rise and fail of Christmas cards

I don't want to seem like a Grinch so close to Christmas eve, but am I the only one who has difficulty picking out a Christmas card from a rack? The art work is usually sufficient, but then they need to throw all that smarmy repetitive syrupy language on top. It seems disingenuous, I mean, I can be syrupy if I want to. I don't need a ghost writer.

I have found a few cards while digging through the past, and I can present evidence that some of these really should have never left the rack
 Actually, this seems to match the times, which is kind of depressing because this was printed in the 1940's.


I get the Scottie dog, but I don't know why they had to copy the dialect. It took several passes before I could understand this one from 1935.


Good old Walt didn't miss a trick and knew the value in strictly licensing his characters to the most reputable companies.

As my gift to you for making it to the bottom of this post I offer you these 2 options: 
First, to learn a bit more about how Christmas cards really got started - read my latest Patch column here.

And now for something completely different -
Here is a video all about Christmas cards by Monty Python member and animator Terry Gilliam.

1 comment:

  1. Awesome finds & fantastic prose! Peta Hippo alert! Love Python animated card! Where do I pay my entrance fee? Blog is crazy fun at 7 am. Smilin today.

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