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Christmas Stagecoaches

Frideswide

Frideswide

Fortea Morgana :) PeteByrdie certificated Princess
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Back in the day (1960s, 1970s) there were always some Christmas cards which had stagecoaches on them.

I can't remember the last time we received one! Is this a Thing or a happenstance or a recognisable result of our circle of friends?

There seem to be fewer robins about too.... :(
 
I think the whole 'Dickensian Christmas scene' (stagecoaches, carol singers in Victorian dress with lantern on a pole, horse-drawn sleighs) seems to have fallen out of favour recently. Much more of the 'forest scene' (badgers, foxes, deer in snow or looking up at the sky) about these days. I guess these things are as prone to fashion trends as anything else.
 
escargot said:
Stagecoaches and lanterns are harder to draw than snowscenes and streamlined animals.
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Yes, the cards seem to have gone the way of Christmas decorations - much less colourful and detailed and all very minimalistic and 'tasteful'. Christmas is not the time for good taste, in my opinion.
 
Glitter. I'm sure it's some form of giant virus. Bloody stuff gets everywhere. Open one card with glitter on it and your home is infested for life. You'll open a book in November and there sparkling away at you will be, glitter. I'm sure that if you could collect it all into one place in January it would reflect enough sunlight to offset global warming.
There were some shops selling glitter free cards this year but that doesn't solve the problem of people who send them to you.
There were no racks of penguin free cards though. They are the avian greeting card equivalent of glitter. Remember my warning when Christmas cards are just endless racks of glittery penguins.
 
Tunn11 said:
Glitter. I'm sure it's some form of giant virus. Bloody stuff gets everywhere. Open one card with glitter on it and your home is infested for life. You'll open a book in November and there sparkling away at you will be, glitter. I'm sure that if you could collect it all into one place in January it would reflect enough sunlight to offset global warming.
There were some shops selling glitter free cards this year but that doesn't solve the problem of people who send them to you.
There were no racks of penguin free cards though. They are the avian greeting card equivalent of glitter. Remember my warning when Christmas cards are just endless racks of glittery penguins.
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Unfortunately, I have a friend who does this every year. Actually adds extra glitter into the envelope.
It is now in the carpet forever.
 
It is interesting how cards have got more minimal while decorations have got more over the top and feature extravagant external light shows. I feel like cards have become much less of a "thing" now with many people choosing not to send them at all.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Unfortunately, I have a friend who does this every year. Actually adds extra glitter into the envelope.
It is now in the carpet forever.
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I wonder whether it works in the same way the chaff used to deflect radar works? If so your house may now be invisible to radar and assorted "rays"; a sort of architectural equivalent of a tinfoil hat.
 
I don't send Christmas cards. It's not because I'm being all caring about the environment and waste or making a donation to charity instead - it's because I'm too bloody disorganised to sort out writing addressing stamping and sending amid all the other things I have to do around Christmas. (But I tell people it's environmental).
 
Tunn11 said:
Glitter. I'm sure it's some form of giant virus. Bloody stuff gets everywhere. Open one card with glitter on it and your home is infested for life. You'll open a book in November and there sparkling away at you will be, glitter. I'm sure that if you could collect it all into one place in January it would reflect enough sunlight to offset global warming.
There were some shops selling glitter free cards this year but that doesn't solve the problem of people who send them to you.
There were no racks of penguin free cards though. They are the avian greeting card equivalent of glitter. Remember my warning when Christmas cards are just endless racks of glittery penguins.
Click to expand...
Penguins at Christmas is a pet hate of mine. It symbolises the lazy thinking that has become more prevalent in the UK. Snow, penguins like snow, therefore they must live with Santa. I've even seen pictures with what I assume is meant to be the northern lights with bloody penguins in it. Of course, maybe it's meantto represent the aurora Australis, but why put that on a Christmas card? It's summer there.
 
Rushfan62 said:
Penguins at Christmas is a pet hate of mine. It symbolises the lazy thinking that has become more prevalent in the UK. Snow, penguins like snow, therefore they must live with Santa. I've even seen pictures with what I assume is meant to be the northern lights with bloody penguins in it. Of course, maybe it's meantto represent the aurora Australis, but why put that on a Christmas card? It's summer there.
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Yes And penguins with polar bears! It should be Great Auks if anything but they're all gone. Do you think the penguins had a hand flipper in that?
 
Rushfan62 said:
Penguins at Christmas is a pet hate of mine. It symbolises the lazy thinking that has become more prevalent in the UK. Snow, penguins like snow, therefore they must live with Santa. I've even seen pictures with what I assume is meant to be the northern lights with bloody penguins in it. Of course, maybe it's meantto represent the aurora Australis, but why put that on a Christmas card? It's summer there.
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Ah, but cards aren't meant to represent what Christmas actually is, they are meant to represent what we wish Christmas would be. I've got a card with a red squirrel sitting watching horse riders go by. Never seen a red squirrel within 100 miles of my house, but I'd like to. Cards that represented reality would be full of children crying and arguing, red-faced Mum in the kitchen standing over a bubbling saucepan and Dad with a bin liner full of cast off wrapping paper, trying to squeeze it into an overfull bin.

Not very picturesque.
 
catseye said:
Ah, but cards aren't meant to represent what Christmas actually is, they are meant to represent what we wish Christmas would be. I've got a card with a red squirrel sitting watching horse riders go by. Never seen a red squirrel within 100 miles of my house, but I'd like to. Cards that represented reality would be full of children crying and arguing, red-faced Mum in the kitchen standing over a bubbling saucepan and Dad with a bin liner full of cast off wrapping paper, trying to squeeze it into an overfull bin.

Not very picturesque.
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Also dismal scenes of mud and slush with rain pouring down over untidy shops stuffed with Xmas crap, litter, fed up shop assistants and irritated shoppers.
But Dickens lived at the end of the little ice age when Xmas was cold and often snowy and it seems that his Victorian ideal is what we are stuck with.
 
Tunn11 said:
Penguins, it's the penguins they're taking over the role of the robins. I've been trying to warn people for years....
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Tunn11 said:
Glitter. I'm sure it's some form of giant virus. Bloody stuff gets everywhere. Open one card with glitter on it and your home is infested for life. You'll open a book in November and there sparkling away at you will be, glitter. I'm sure that if you could collect it all into one place in January it would reflect enough sunlight to offset global warming.
There were some shops selling glitter free cards this year but that doesn't solve the problem of people who send them to you.
There were no racks of penguin free cards though. They are the avian greeting card equivalent of glitter. Remember my warning when Christmas cards are just endless racks of glittery penguins.
Click to expand...
In the early hours today I got up and glanced in passing at a mirror. There were tiny bits of glitter stuck to my face.

I noticed they were all flat and angular, hmmm, could it be from when I was cutting out that shiny fabric in my bedroom? I've probably swallowed some.
 
It's certainly true that tastes in Christmas cards change. You only need to look at the weird, bizarre and frankly rather creepy stuff the Victorians used to put on them. I expect there is probably a thread on here with the pics, but one I recall - and have seen somewhere recently - depicts the sad finale of a fencing duel between two frogs. And I'm sure there were plenty of other freakishly unseasonal ones too. I've got no idea whether they were popular designs in their day, but their mere existence is a bit alarming.
 
Frideswide said:
It's complete with unfeasibly boisterous horses too!

Why dioes the figure at the back have a fretboard without the rest of the instrument?
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I think that is just an intriguingly long wrapped parcel. I wonder what could possibly be in it? And does it require batteries? :wink2:

And there really is a helluva lotta steam issuing from that lead horse's nostrils! Something has really got those critters spooked.
 
Frideswide said:
It's complete with unfeasibly boisterous horses too!

Why dioes the figure at the back have a fretboard without the rest of the instrument?
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The one with the giant twelve man humbug? I'm also worried by the man in the beefeater costume who appears to be standing in the air behind the coach carrying a bag bigger than him.

Benjamin Bathurst was there but he seems to have disappeared.
 
Tunn11 said:
The one with the giant twelve man humbug? I'm also worried by the man in the beefeater costume who appears to be standing in the air behind the coach carrying a bag bigger than him.

Benjamin Bathurst was there but he seems to have disappeared.
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Hmm. For what at first glance seems to be a relatively simple Christmas card it does seem to have a lot of 'issues'.
 
Get that mutt away from those horses! they are terrified!

(But otherwise its a pretty nifty card).
 
I stopped sending cards (other than to a few selected relatives who would be offended at not getting one, sigh) in the early nineties. As @catseye mentioned above it had become too much of a chore and not only that I couldn't afford it! So all the talk above about what's depicted on them these days and the prevalence of glitter has gone totally over my head as I've also trained my friends relatives and acquaintances not to send me one (took a few years mind you but I got through in the end) so I've not had to set my eyes on one for quite some time. :)

As regards the OP a dear aunt of mine always used to send one depicting a stagecoach as to her it was the absolute epitome of the season! Bless her.
 
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