Christmas Card Gallery

I make my own Christmas Cards. You can buy 25 or 50 pre-scored cards with envelopes in a variety of sizes. I want to stress that I do not sell Christmas Cards I make, and I don't make them for anyone else - which makes me feel slightly better about copying designs from 19th century prints. I'm honestly not trying to pass them of as originals, or as original ideas.

2020

In 2020 I started during Half Term week. In the UK, the school year, which begins in September, is divided into 3 terms. Each term is split into two halves, with a week's Half Term break in between. Like a lot of teachers, I usually go away during the Autumn and Spring half term breaks, but hey, this is lockdown year, and being that the whole of Wales is under lockdown I'm not even supposed to leave the house unless to go to work or do vital shopping. I was wating for a new pack of blank cards to be delivered, but then found a pack I was given earlier in the year. So off we went.

I also latched onto the idea in 2020 of using silhouettes as well : -

These were all made on square blank cards I was given earlier in the year. However I'd also ordered some of the A5 cards I usually use, and also made up some of these as well:-

2019

I started making these cards at the start of November, at the same time as putting together a series of ink sketches for a proposed exhibition in Margam Park.

2018

The first card I made for 2018 was a departure from the previous year. This is based on a Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post

I liked this one so much, and generally love Norman Rockwell's work so much, that I used several other designs as well: -

There were still a number of Thomas Nast designs I hadn't copied yet, when I sat down to start on my cards for 2018. Here's the first ones:-

Nast often used his own children as models, so there's every good chance that the two girls in these two may be his own daughters, and even that the dog may be his own. Here's a few more:-

I didn't quite exhaust the possibilities of John Tenniel last year either, and this next is based on one of his sketches:-

Like last year, I had no intention of just sticking to the one source. The majority, though, were Victorian engravings, partly because I love them, and partly because I know that I can render them quite effectively in pen and ink

This one was a last minute job. I had some blank cards with me, so made this on a lunchtime at work when I realised that I had more colleagues and friends to give to than cards.
2017 Pen and Ink

Copies of Thomas Nast Prints

For 2017 I was rather unsatisfied with my watercolour efforts, and so I decided to use my trusty sketching pen to try to do something better. These first cards are copies of cartoons drawn by the great 19th century American illustrator, cartoonist and satirist Thomas Nast. I love Nast's work anyway, not just his Christmas work. Nast's Father Christmas for me is the epitome of the Santa from Clement Clark Moore's A Visit from Saint Nicholas, the poem from the 1820s which begins - Twas the Night Before Christmas. . . He's not quite the modern, Coca Cola Santa of today, although you can see that he's well on the way. Rather, he's a twinkly, mischievous old rogue. He has the traditional holly crown of the old Father Christmas, and is often shown with a pipe, but on the same hand he is also often shown bringing presents to children as well.

Copies from John Tenniel illustrations in Punch

Tenniel was a contemporary of Nast, but his Father Christmas is a very traditional English Father Christmas, not Santa Claus, and old man with long white beard and a crown of holly, going door to door , not down the chimney, and spreading cheer rather than giving out presents.

Copies from other 19th century Prints

I believe that Nast's work was printed from woodblocks, and here are a couple of other cards also based on designs from other prints contemporary with Nast's. Like Tenniel, these present us with the traditional Father Christmas with his hollybush and his holly crown, and sometimes his wassail bowl.