Family History Fun: Advent Calendar 4 - Christmas Card Scrapbooks

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Advent Calendar 4 - Christmas Card Scrapbooks

The postcard above, sent in 1877, was in the collection of my third cousin, (once removed), Janet, who made contact with me through the website http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/ - we went onto exchange family memorabilia. The verse reflects rather Victorian maudlin sentiment of the time, but it is still a lovely picture.

Christmas Card Scrapbooks

One of my favourite post Christmas occupations is to create a Christmas Scrapbook. It seems such a shame to bin so many lovely images that I have come up with my own way of retaining the cards for future pleasure.

I began doing this years ago when my daughter was small, with "Gillian's Christmas Scrapb

ook" (right) a way of conveying the Christmas story, message and traditions in a strong visual way and displaying cards that had been spent especially sent to her. I hand-wrote the words as this was long before the days of computers. The scrapbook came out of the cupboard every Christmas to look through and reminiscence over and it became part of our family tradition which now inludes our little granddaughter.

More years down the line, I had a growing collection of cards that I had refused to throw out, so I created something similar in a more adult version calling it "Christmas Kaleidoscope"- (above left) annotated this time by the computer, which of course made a huge difference to the style of presentation.

By then I had the bug, so the next year it was "A Christmas Anthology", (left) using the cards to illustrate poems, songs and literature relating to Christmas.

Last year the theme was "Christmas A-Z" (right) focusing on a wide range of aspects of the Christmas story. What would I do without the internet to help with history and definitions?

I do mean to stop - but already my mind is on a new theme - perhaps looking at the stories behind Christmas carols.

Since I began, scrapbooking has become a sophisticated hobby, but I have kept to a very simple style with the focus on the illustrations.

So to anyone who sends me a card, it continues to give pleasure long after the 12 days of Christmas have past.