Classic Christmas Cards From Hallmark

In yesterday's post I mentioned Christmas cards as big business, and there's no bigger greeting card business than Hallmark. The Hallmark website has a slide show of some charming Christmas cards featuring Santa Claus —not the one here, from 1945 featuring a feather for Santa's beard, but an amazing se;action from the 1920s through 2010. See them here—and for vintage Hallmark cards you can actually obtain vintage Hallmark cards here, the website at which I found the Santa card pictured here.

Welcome To The Muppet Theatre

Tulgey Wood's Muppet Month brings us this wonderful piece of Muppet merchandise. As always, Hallmark created some beautiful products and this elaborate Muppet Show centerpiece is no exception. This three-dimensional table decoration (which stands over a foot tall when assembled) not only wonderfully features many Muppets, but it also showcases the Muppet theatre (stage and back stage) itself —an appropriate theme for this centerpiece, for the theatre is the centerpiece of both The Muppet Show and the new Muppets movie. This 1978 Hallmark gem is a true celebration of Jim Henson's Muppets.

Picnic On With The Muppets

Over the years, Hallmark has done a wonderful job designing all kinds of imaginative goods true to such licensed characters as Looney Tunes, Peanuts and of course Disney. For a time beginning in the late 1970s, Hallmark also boasted some truly creative products featuring the Muppets. This wonderfully produced Muppets Picnic Cookbook was available in the summer of 1981, and features such hot-weather recipes as Muppet Labs Vanilla Ice Cream and Miss Piggy's Precious Pink Punch. (Click on any image for a larger view.) Hungry for more Muppet fun? Be sure and visit Tulgey Wood in November for more Muppet mania to celebrate Disney's new Muppet movie.

Ye who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing

One of the "Party Planner" items Hallmark has issued over the years has been a variety of centerpieces, some of which have featured Disney or Peanuts or other characters. Though I don't know if this is still happening, for many Christmases Hallmark also published a cardboard Nativity scene, such as the one pictured on the left, circa 1980. Though these cardboard creches were undoubtedly used for parties and as decorations, they were also used by poor households who were unable to afford even the most inexpensive figural Nativity. Though I have seen some elaborate and exquisite Nativity scenes in churches, homes and museums, this humble Hallmark somehow seems most appropriate to celebrate the birth of the Child born into poverty. This post is dedicated to my mother and father who, often at sacrifice for themselves, never failed to help someone in need, whether it was Christmas or not. Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad...and Merry Christmas to all.