Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown, No. 10 Blue Santa Christmas Greetings

Vintage Christmas Card No. 10 Blue Santa Christmas Greetings

Christmas Greetings!

With his blue coat sparking with gold, this Victorian peddler Santa brings children toys with the help of his elf, peeking out of his sack, in this stunning turn-of-the-century Christmas postcard.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card No. 9, That Will Hold Most Everything I Want

Vintage Christmas Card No. 9 That Will Hold Most Everything I Want

I love the little boy in his sailor suit and confident stance delighted over his Christmas stocking solution.  Maybe I identified, having felt the same way in some of my younger Christmases!

As your stockings are hopefully also "hung by the chimney with care" today, I hope that this Holiday Season holds "most everything" that you want, too.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card No. 8 Santa's Watching

Vintage Christmas Card No. 8 Santa's Watching

This postcard made me do a double take when I first saw it.  In the image Santa has what at first glance appear to be a very high tech set of binoculars, but after checking my dates, I can promise that it is some WWI technology being put to use for worldwide gift delivery--both greeting and the postmark validate it is 1923.

I feel like this image gives new meaning to "checking his list"!

The greeting below the image reads:

Merry Christmas

Here's for a Merry Christmas
The best in many a day.
May Santa scatter his blessings
Of joy along your way.

The message reads:

So. Seubee (?) Maine

December 18, 1923

Dear Evie with best wishes for a Merry Christmas

hoping you are well Your Aunt - J.G.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown, No. 7 Broadcasting Greetings True

Vintage Christmas Card No. 7 Broadcasting Greetings True

Continuing with the theme of technology, communications and Christmas greetings from yesterday, I wanted to share this cozy scene of a young mother and child listening to the radio while their cat bathes and the child's stocking is hung for Christmas.

Once again, no postmark but the style of the radio (very early) and her heels have me dating this to the early 1920.

The greeting reads:

Sincere Christmas Wishes

I broadcast greetings true

On this Christmas Day to you

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown No. 6, Santa's on the Line

Vintage Christmas Card Countdown No. 6, Santa's on the Line

This unusual postcard shows Santa on a candlestick phone and captures a glimpse of our technology and communication future.  Based on the telephone style and Santa's rosy cheeks and jolly glance, I am dating it to the early 1920s as this is the rare "unsent" postcard with no postmarks or messages to mark its exact place in time.

The greeting is a wonderful little verse, that I feel is still true no matter how fast and often technology lets us travel or connect:

From here to there's an awful ways,

Measured by miles and nights and days,

Yet Christmas always brings you near--

The season's best to you my dear.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown, No. 5 1950s Charming Christmas Card with Glitter

Vintage Christmas Card No. 5, 1950s Charming Christmas Card with Glitter

While not in my usual collecting style or era, I found this card and its images too charming to pass up after I discovered it in a box of postcards at Burning Bridge Antiques in Pennsylvania.

Based on the images and the font on the inside, I have placed it to be printed somewhere between 1948 and 1955, but I am not 100% certain of that.  It is one of my only cards that has a thermography-type glitter on it.

The inside reads:

On the same friendly day - In the same friendly way -

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The card is signed Harry and Barry Falkenstine and I have a hunch that it may have been a business holiday card.

On the back is the logo of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America Local No. 1 New York.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown, No.4 Arctic Stag

Vintage Christmas Card No. 4, Arctic Stag

It is very difficult not to begin each of these posts with "this card is one of my favorites" because they each have their own story and beauty.  The "Arctic Stag" holiday card, so-nicknamed for its highly detailed image of a stag with a background of snowy mountains and starry skies, was a surprise find on a rainy spring day at the Brimfield Antique Show. I discovered it in a box of old photos and knew it was a must-have.

The card is striking in its simplicity, elegant white flowers provide an embossed frame for the monochromatic winter landscape glued to the thick card stock.  On the inside, swallows fly over the greeting printed in a curling, decorative font:

With Kind Regards and all

Good Wishes for Christmas and

the New Year   

While there is again, no printed date, I believe that it is from roughly early 1900s, about the same time as yesterday's card.

Most interesting is that this is one of my few cards that is branded by the manufacturer. The logo of a clover is on the back with the text "Hills & Co., Made in London, Unique Cards" in each of the petals.  Despite my best research efforts, I have not been able to find any information about the company.  If you have any clues that may help me learn more, please let me know.

Best of all is the inscription to "dear Maria" whom, with that simple greeting, I feel must have been as special as the card itself to the sender Mr. Riseon.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown, No. 3 Best Wishes for Christmas

Vintage Christmas Card No. 3, Best Wishes for Christmas

This little red card has a lot of charm and just as much mystery.  I found it in my favorite antique shop in Concord, Massachusetts, and loved the red paper, the petite size (it is 2.5" x 5"), green ribbon and the pastoral image.  While the colors and verse are holiday related, the images of the blind embossed boat scene and summer landscape are quite a misfit for the season.

  

One of the challenges of vintage Christmas Cards is that unlike postcards which usually have a date in the postmark, cards over time (or immediately) are separated from their envelopes.  Based on the style of the ribbon tie and assembly, I can roughly date it to 1900.  This is why I get excited when I see a card, like yesterday's, where the author notes the date in their greeting.

The verse in gold font reads:

My Greeting

Through the hours whose

gladness never wavers,

May Father Christmas 

never tire,

Conferring you his 

fairest favors,

And granting you

your heart's desire.

While we don't know who the card is intended for, or if it was even given, we do know that it was from Winnie who marked her Christmas Card with her name using a fine point nib and running a little low on ink.

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown No. 2, When Bells are Ringing

Vintage Christmas Card No. 2, When Bells are Ringing

This vintage Christmas card from 1905 blends a late Victorian/early Edwardian Santa image (he's more serious than jolly and looks like a monk with no trim on his cap) with the elegant leaves and shapes of Art Nouveau.  The card is embossed and the Santa figure is a separate die cut image that is tucked into an opening in the front of the card, giving it a sense of depth and dimension.

The text is interesting because it is one of the first times that Christmas is abbreviated to the casual "Xmas."

The text inside is flat printed in a pale blue and reads:

Wishing You a Merry

and Happy Xmas

To-day the golden sunlight

Is fluff and broad and strong;

The glory of the One Light

Must overflow in song,

Song that floweth ever,

Sweeter every day,

Song whose echoes never, 

Never die away

And to my delight, on the back in pencil is this message:

With love and a Merry Christmas to May Fraiser

AP Bulger 

Dec 1905

Nostalgia: Vintage Christmas Card Countdown No. 1, Merry Christmas from the Milkman

Mailing Christmas Cards and handwritten Season's Greetings is a long standing holiday tradition--and one of my favorite things about the holidays!  I love the cards arriving in the mail in the afternoon just as much as those from my collection of vintage stationery from Christmases past.

As a countdown to December 25th, I hope you enjoy these vintage holiday greetings from my collection in the last week before The Big Day.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or just enjoy having the holiday spirit in your heart, I wish you a joyous and wonderful holiday!

Vintage Christmas Card No. 1
1946 Merry Christmas from Your Milk Salesman