Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
My first art job was as a concept card designer in Humorous Planning for American Greeting Cards. But long before that I part of a big family who believed in “make-your-own” Christmas (and birthdays) with homemade cards, gift-wrap and occasional even the gift inside. My first birthday card was to my Grandma Norris in the Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota. My pencil rendition consisted of a teddy bear taking a bow on stage, inside was my crudely cut out snapshot of my brother Jack. I was surprised that after she passed I got the card back amongst the meager few things that she had kept through the years. I was about 7 at the time of this artistic endeavor and had been making stuff for at least 3 years before that. One year I resourcefully hoarded all the lollipops and Lifesavers I had received for Halloween and used them to decorate the top of the gifts I bought for the family. These were the “Hard Candy” Christmases when made garlands out of popcorn and cranberries and received my Mother’s hand sewn gifts. Ah the joy of invention!
After Michael and I were married and BC (before Colin our first kid) we shopped for vintage or antique gifts for all our siblings and wrapped them up as huge Christmas objects, drums, candlesticks, Candy Cane etc. More than cookies, more than shopping, making cards, and gift-wraps has and is an important ingredient in our holiday celebration.
My guess is that we have created cards for 90% of our Christmases. (We missed a few years when raising kids and holding two jobs.) We used to rely on professional printing with a limited silkscreen of 2 colors but now Michael or I create on the computer and print at home just the number we need. And because of the size of our family (I have over 50 nephews and nieces) the cards are often the only gift we give and, as we come to find out, they are frequently saved over the years. Yes, hanging in the doorways of some of our friends and family are the cards we created years past. I fuss over just the right art and just the right verse. This year I used some of the lyrics from “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with some tweaking to make them just right.
Christmas is not complete without the making and sending of cards. It also falls empty if we haven’t given outside our family and friends. This year it was Charley Company in Iraq but other years have been families down on their luck. Christmas can be overwhelming because of high emotions but I wouldn’t give it up.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Art, Philosophy. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
