The Christmas card census

[shewhomust]

• Snow Scenes 35. The most diverse group, including:
  
  • two views of Durham cathedral from our local councillors
  
  
  • an almost abstract painting by Francis Boag (I look at it now and wonder whether the patch of white really justifies classifying it as a snow scene, but that was my first thought and I'll stick with it) and a detail of a Paris street scene by Norbert Goeneutte (a name that is new to me - and once seen, surely never forgotten)
  
  
  • two Japanese prints
  
  
  • two snowmen
  
  
  • skiing nuns and just skiers
  
  
  • a pillar box in the snow, sheep in the snow, park benches in the snow (two variations on this theme)
  
  
  • Santa's red outfit hanging outside a log cabin (this doesn't sound special, but the photo is very appealing)
  
  
  • two RNLI cards: a naïve painting of a harbour at Chriustmas, and (probably my favourite card this year) an orange-clad crew walking down the road towards Lindisfarne castle


• Birds 22, comprising:
  • five doves, all non-realistic
  
  
  • geese swimming (more snow here - but i was distracted from it by the sheer inappropriateness of happy geese celebrating Christmas)
  
  
  • one very fluffy tree sparrow and a clutch of fluffy ducklings
  
  
  • 11 robins, including two on the handles of spades (duplicate card), one on a pillar box, one on a pot of snowdrops, and two copies of Edward Bawden's Robins' Christmas Party
  
  
  • a very glittery pair of penguins, and a trio without glitter
  
  
  • puffins! made for me specially!


• Animals 12: 3 reindeer (one with snowflake baubles hanging from his antlers), 4 polar bears (two cartoony, two photos - but the photos had more glitter), one mouse, one rabbits, four cats (including one with pillar box and robin, and one looking very disgruntled in an antlered headband)


• Christmas trees: 12, all shapes and sizes, some with added ribbons, one with 3D snowflakes and one tour de force of woven paper. None was actually realistic, no photographs and no greenery, though Viggo Johansen's Glade Jul came closest


• Other plants: 13. 2 snowdrops (in addition to the robin's pot), 7 red berries (lots of glitter), a Red Cross rose, Candy's aunt's wood engraving and a very fine hand-stencilled dandelion


• Baubles: 4


• Snowflakes: 3


• Nativity scenes: (freely interpreted) 12, namely: oriental townscapes 7; magi, 3 (including magi approaching oriental townscape, 1), mother and child, 1, and stained glass, 1


• Angels: 6, including a Gustav Klimt identified as "Harmony" who probably isn't an angel really, at all


• Santa Claus: 5, including a Mel Calman, a Francis Blake and - goodness, that's odd: I hadn't looked closely at this one before. Santa figure in red robe and holly crown seated with a sack at his feet brimming with vegetables. Birds and beasts cluster around him; a hedgehog peers out from under his hem, a parrot watches a goat which is eating a carrot, a rabbit, a guinea pig and a kitten are investigating the sack and another kitten, in Santa's lap, is peering at something green - maybe a bauble - in his hand. Soon it will notice the mouse climbing up his skirt, and then all hell will break loose...


• Sundry other stars, oranges, mittens, fireworks, candles, Christmas puddings etc: 15

I make that a grand - a very grand - total of 138, which is ridiculous. No wonder I didn't have a chance to play with them as they arrived, and have to make up for it now!

Comments

[cinderberry.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a ridiculously fun game. I'm itching to play with mine now, particularly since we've been away for nearly a month, and have only just returned to open all the cards. (All of them. At once.)

It's fitting that cats should be a symbol of Christmas. There ought to be an excuse to put a cat on any card, any time.

[cellio]

The Santa-and-veggies-and-critters one sounds really neat!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It is, and there's no indication of where it comes from: I know who sent it to us, but that's all.