PFF - Ded Moroz & Snegurochka - New Year Greetings

During the Soviet years Christmas celebrations and customs in the Soviet Union were shifted to New Year's. This Russian New Year postcard shows the Russian version of Santa Claus, Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), and his granddaughter/helper Snegurochka (Snow Maiden). They are traveling in a troika, a sleigh pulled by a team of three horses harnessed abreast.

This card is © USSR Ministry of Communications 1988. It is one of the cards included in my video Snegurochka & Ded Moroz - Russian New Year Postcards.

VTT - Kewpie Postcard & Tea Set

The little Kewpie on my postcard is ringing in the New Year. The postcard is signed by Rose O'Neill and is postmarked 1923.

The Kewpie tea set belonged to my mother when she was a child. The pieces that are decorated with Prussian soldier Kewpies are marked "Copyrighted Rose O'Neill Wilson, Kewpie, Germany." The saucers have the same pink border as the other pieces but are not decorated. They are marked Leuchtenburg Germany.

My tea set is missing some pieces. There is an auction picture showing a "Rose O'Neill Child's 15 piece Pink Lusterware Tea Set" that includes a sugar bowl and six cups here.

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Fröhliche Weihnachten from Germany

This postcard is from a Postcrossing member in Germany. It shows the characters in the German children's show, The Program with the Maus.

Merci Xmas Chocolate

This is a Boomerang freecard advertising Merci chocolate. I received it from a Postcrossing member in The Netherlands who wrote: "we often give them to a person who we want to thank for something they did or just to say thank you for being there for me."

Holiday Greetings from Poland

This is a Postcrossing postcard I received from Poland. Just looking at this card gives me a warm feeling.

Radosnych Świąt
Bożego Narodzenia
oraz szcześcia
w nadchodzącym
Nowym Roku

translation:

Merry Christmas and happiness in the New Year

December 25 Merry Christmas Angel

PFF - Santa at the Window with Gifts

If you don't have a chimney for Santa to use, he may deliver your gifts through a window. You may even see him!

To see more of my Christmas postcards, click on the Christmas label at the bottom of this post or on the sidebar.

VTT - Christmas Postcard & Potholders

The little maid on my postcard is carrying a flaming plum pudding. She looks like she could use one of my vintage Christmas potholders.

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VTT - Christmas Cats

The cat postcard above is one of the cards I used in a video I made today and posted on YouTube: Vintage Christmas Postcards - Greetings From My Cat. This is the second video I made using Windows Movie Maker (the first was yesterday). My video shows postcards from my collection and is embedded below.

The ceramic cat below is about 3 inches tall and is made in Japan. I bought it a couple of months ago at a Salvation Army store for 49¢.

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and

PFF - A Gracious Greeting Card

I bought this postcard because I liked the design, which I consider kind of a combination of Arts and Crafts style printing and Art Nouveau design. On examining the fine print I discovered that this card was ©1913 Geo. W. Parker Art Co. Minneapolis. Although I live in the Minneapolis area, this is the only postcard I have from that company.

VTT - Christmas Children Postcard & Figures

The Christmas postcard with the old-fashioned children is copyright Bon Ton Art Co. 1912. It is signed with the initials C.G. Jr.

I was really happy to find some ceramic figures of a boy and a girl in a thrift shop last week. They are just the kind of Christmas figures I was hoping to find. I have some caroling salt and pepper shakers that I posted last year, and I decided I would like some more vintage shakers or figures of children singing. I don't know how old these figures are--does anyone else know? They have a small label on the bottom that just says Japan.

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&

a VINTAGE CHRISTMAS PARTY at

PFF - Snowy Holiday Greetings & Nyce Manufacturing Co.

The children on this card are obviously excited by the fresh snow. I like fresh snow too. A couple of weeks ago the first snow here clung to the trees and looked beautiful and clean like the winter scene on this card. Now, I am already tired of winter. We usually don't have so much snow or cold weather this early in the season.

This postcard was made in the U.S.A., probably sometime between 1915 and 1925. Like other American made greeting postcards, it has a lot of white space and more Americanized subjects than earlier European made postcards.

This a sample card with advertising for the Nyce Manufacturing Co. of Vernfield, PA on the back. I haven't found much information on this company on the Internet. I did see another sample card which said that they had been post card specialists since 1908. They were still publishing postcards during the chrome era. Most of their linen and chrome postcards seem to be of the generic type with greetings from various locations imprinted on the front or back of the card. It is not clear whether they were manufacturing postcards or just publishing and selling postcards.

VTT - Christmas & Magazines

The Christmas subscription offer for The Farmer's Wife magazine is printed on a 1¢ postal card. If you paid for your subscription before February 1, 1928, you could receive a three year subscription to the magazine for only 85 cents. A 1938 Time magazine article reported that "No newsstands carry the Farmer's Wife but it goes through the mail anywhere at $1 for three years."

Even a larger magazine like American Home seems ridiculously cheap compared to today's prices. The subscription order form in the December 1939 issue offered 3 gift subscriptions for only $2.

The American Home magazine was a monthly magazine published from 1928 to 1977. The cover on this December, 1939 issue of The American Home has illustrations from Walt Disney's Pinocchio and advertises "More than 200 Xmas Ideas."

Many of the Christmas ideas in the magazine would still be appropriate today, but some of them seem quaint or are outmoded:

• If in doubt about the right gift, send cigarettes. They're always welcome.
• Jolly, bright oilcloth ensembles will be welcomed into any woman's kitchen.
• Small models of New England's most picturesque spired churches, tiny Cape Cod houses, little old school buildings, all may be sliced from a mere loaf of bread in a manner astonishing to see and exciting to do.

In contrast to the low priced magazine subscriptions are the relatively high prices on electrical appliances. The prices on toasters don't seem much different than today's prices. In the Toastmaster ad, a 1-slice toaster is $9.95, and a 2-slice toaster is $16.00.

Pyrex advertised "Merry Pyrexmas Bargains" at prices that were "reduced 30% to 50% in the last 2 years." The double duty casserole with pie plate cover was called a "pyrexmas surprise." This was priced at 95¢ for the 3 qt. size, 75¢ for the 2 qt., 65¢ for 1-1/2 qt., and 65¢ for the 1 qt.

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PFF - Thanksgiving Postcard Ad - Auburn Post Card Mfg. Co.

I think the picture on this Thanksgiving postcard is very boring. What makes this postcard interesting is the Auburn Post Card Manufacturing advertising on the back. I suspect that the "best value" prices advertised are low because these cards were not selling well.

Auburn Post Card Manufacturing was a new name in 1913 for the Whitten-Dennison Post Card Company that originated in Maine. The company had moved to Indiana in 1910. The name was changed again in 1929 to Auburn Greeting Card Company. The company was known mainly for black-and-white views and comics. Auburn Post Card Mfg. was probably the publisher or distributor of this type of embossed greeting postcard, not the manufacturer.

VTT - Thanksgiving Turkeys

This Thanksgiving postcard with the singing turkeys never fails to amuse me. The idea of singing turkeys is ridiculous, but their words echo over and over in my mind:

Thanks to him who spared our living
We're here, we're here till next Thanksgiving.

I am showing one of the same sets of turkey salt and pepper shakers that I showed last year, with the addition of a large matching turkey I found this year. I find the large turkey somewhat puzzling. It seems too big and hard to handle as a shaker, yet it has the same kind of holes as a small shaker. Is it really a salt shaker? Does it have a mate?

I'll end by wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving with a Thanksgiving Day Video Card.

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VTT - Thanksgiving Ideals

Above is an old Thanksgiving postcard titled appropriately "Good Old Thanksgiving." This postcard was mailed 100 years ago in 1910.

Below is a 1966 Thanksgiving issue of of Ideals magazine with a pair of my turkey salt and pepper shakers. The shakers are marked Napco Ware Import Japan on a paper label.

The Thanksgiving issue of Ideals includes not only Thanksgiving, but also Halloween, harvest, and other seasonal fall subjects. Below are some of the pages. The "Home for Thanksgiving" painting and poem appeared opposite each other in a two-page spread. "The Patchwork Quilt" poem appeared on the right side of a two-page spread about quilting bees. The opposite page had another "The Quilting Bee" poem and a continuation of the same quilting bee illustration.

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VTT - Apples and Thanksgiving

Today's Thanksgiving postcard showing a boy eating an apple was published by the Stecher Lithograph Company and is numbered 252 F. It was mailed in 1912.

Below are two apple wall pocket planters. The one on the left is marked PY and has an N in a circle. The one on the right is Royal Copley. Both have holes on the back for hanging. The one on the right has a flat bottom and can also stand.

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