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Christmas cards

Monday, 24 December 2007

A part of me wishes that I had kept everything that I ever had. But apart from the fact that this would not make me any happier, I would need three extra houses to store all the stuff. Having the memories should be enough.

There were years when we received over a hundred Christmas cards, of which at least 30 were original designs, cards that were not for sale and that were only seen by a few dozen of people. My life was so full with comics and illustrations in those days that I never fully realised how special it all was.
I do now, but I could only find one box with left over Christmas cards, and none of them older then ten years. On this page you can see a random selection. I must have more somewhere, but it would take time to find these. So, that is something for next year.
On my list of plans for the future was for many years a book with all these custom made Christmas cards of Dutch comic artists. I think that most of them have kept the original designs, and if not, there must be somebody who saved the card. It would make a nice book.
Actually, I would prefer to make these Christmas cards only one chapter in the book. The cards that are made to announce the birth of a child are often far more inspired. I have only a small pile of such cards, but there must be thousands of them, and I can imagine that there will be a few hundred people interested in seeing all these labours-of-love.
And there are other cards, of course. Maybe one book is not enough, and it should be a series. But I am not going to make the book(s). I have other things that I find more important, or that need more attention. Like playing records!
Here is a song that will be on the Black Christmas compilation that i hope to make next year: Babs Gonzales with Be-bop Santa Claus.

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