Vintage Christmas cards

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than a cat tormenting a ladybird, with another cat with a bow in the greenery . . . 

. . .  unless it’s a cat playing the mandolin and another singing . . . 

. . . or two cats getting married.

The Snow Child with some greenery, 1909. Hopefully she made it home before the snowfall became too heavy.

Vintage Christmas cards love to depict children in forced labour situations, often in Santa’s workshop, without the benefit of awards, minimum wages, child labour laws and OHS protection. 

Either yelling "Merry Christmas" or "Hellllpppp!

An extraordinarily gifted child with the brush. Is it me or does the ladder seem to not be leaning against the wall at the right angle when compared to the writing?

Creepy.

The card that you give if you don’t want to mention Christmas. 

Santa gets into the egg nog and, by the look of his eyes, he's been at it a while.  A lump of coal in his own stocking?

Let's make a card that sends best wishes and show a little boy, all alone, who has walked a long way in the snow and who keeps dropping everything because it's too much to carry.

Spooky.

Freaky.

Weird

American forces in France

Wrong on so many levels.

WTF?

Strange Santa discovers the wonders of modern technology before the days of iPhones.

Why is there a sleepy Christmas boy in the tree in the dead of winter? Beats me. Have a joyous Christmas.

During WW2, there was an effort made on the home front to kill bugs. This card compares the war on bugs with the war on Yaps and Nutsies.

It's hard to believe that this would ever have been considered acceptable.  Thelma obviously thought it was.

The first mass produced Christmas card, 1843. 10 survive today of the 1,000 printed. The card was hand coloured in that it predated colour printing and depicts a family toasting Christmas, flanked by scenes of the poor being fed and clothed. Created for Henry Cole for personal use, he sold the extra cards for one shilling each. The card caused a controversy in some quarters for showing a child being given wine to drink.