I did not get around to my annual column on the non-Halloween cards one could repurpose to LOOK like Halloween cards, since real vintage Halloween cards are so pricey and I have none in my inventory anyhow. I was very busy reading this new witchcraft bestseller: 101 Transformation Books To Read Before You Croak.
Anyhow, I have far more Thanksgiving postcards. There are plenty of postcards for holidays we USED to celebrate with cards. I am always startled by the number of postcards meant to be sent on George Washington’s birthday, for example. So far, I have not found a single card yet for Franklin Pierce’s birthday.
Yes, you CAN still send greeting cards for Thanksgiving; I worked for an institution which sent out Thanksgiving cards to its constituents, in part because this beat all the competition who sent out Christmas cards. But the card companies’ hearts aren’t in it. They have LOTS of customers for Halloween and Christmas cards, and there just isn’t time to get the holiday racks in the stores changed that quickly. (Anyway, this is the excuse they gave me when I proposed my million dollar idea of producing St. Andrew’s Day cards so the Scots in America could share saint’s day honors with the Irish. But the patron saint of Scotland had the bad taste to choose November 30 for his day, and they said they just couldn’t fit it into their schedules. This may explain the Franklin Pierce thing: his birthday is November 23. And my suggestion for an Advent Calendar of New Year’s Resolutions…where were we?)
It’s not as if Thanksgiving cards are hard to design. As you can see, turkeys were a very popular choice: easy to draw and instantly recognizable. (Speaking of which, what ARE those flowers there on the left?)
The version you actually saw at the table could be more difficult to make quite as cheerful as turkey on the hoof.
The Pilgrims and their ship got SOME attention, but this was more likely to be covered in sets of postcards showing Scenes from American History. The Puritans were NOT known for being holiday types, and during the Golden Age of Postcards, cartoonists had a way of ridiculing anyone they considered too prim by drawing a Pilgrim outfit on them.
This, by the way, is NOT a Thanksgiving postcard, but a line of fantasies showing loving couples through history. It does, though, go nicely with the EATING part of the holiday. That’s a luxury we don’t have now in greeting card racks. Back when there was a vast variety of non-holiday postcards, there were plenty to choose from which, like the non-Halloween cards I’ve observed in October, could be repurposed for the traditions of Thanksgiving. There’s the joy of reuniting with family, for example.
Traditions which became associated with Thanksgiving long after the invention of the holiday are still fair game.
Even snacking through later quarters of the game, as the stomach became ready for more, could be represented.
What? You say that reminds you of another tradition of the turkey-based day?
Now you’re just being rude.
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