Going Directly to Christmas

Don't you hate to see a conglomerate of pumpkins, turkeys, and Christmas trees all lumped together under "seasonal" in your local Wal-Mart? As I look at greeting card seasonal marketing, I'm reminded of the rule of thumb for illustrators; 6 months ahead. So in June, the Christmas tree cards should be designed, and, if I were REALLY on top of things, my store would be replete with Thanksgiving cards and I would be busily designing, um, Easter cards. Really? Still, I want to do with my cards what I like to do in life. I want to linger over each and every holiday. And to me, Halloween isn't over until the "HALLOWEEN STORES" which fill our local emptied store buildings seasonally are gone, I can't see a single candy corn or pumpkin at the local craft store, and the "Halloween" cards are out of the greeting card tiers. Guess what! That never happens! As the Christmas aisle expands with it's glitter, electronic villages and displays, the Halloween aisle will have it's huge markdown, and Thanksgiving, well it's passed over almost entire save a few little pilgrim figurines and an occasional turkey cardboard cut out. So I did a little experimenting. During a Google search, selecting only black and white (to assure me of images of the past, I found one site with suggestions on how to make a Thanksgiving yard sign: http://groupart.info/16871-how-to-make-thanksgiving-turkey-meal-yard-decorations.html And a delightful vintage image of what was probably a 1920's invitation

When people had a little festive gathering on Thanksgiving Eve, perhaps attended their local church; then rose at the crack of dawn to get the bird into what must have been unpredictable ovens. (My mother swore by putting a "diaper" on Tom to keep him moist.) White tablecloths adorned the dining room table, children dressed up in their finest and there was this air of excitement waiting for grandparents, aunts and uncles to arrive? If I could turn back the hands of time, this is one tradition I'd take back; keep Christmas, but let's keep Thanksgiving too.