"MERRY CHRISTMAS from Frank & Virginia" : A Requiem for Santa, Cir. 1950

Maybe a decade ago, in the middle of the summer, my brother gave me a stack of vintage Christmas cards that were vibrant as the day they they were printed.

Being that it wasn't close to December, I stashed them away in the archive stacks , thinking little of them until I started researching 20th century material culture and chromolitho printing a little closer.

The following cards are prime examples of the mastery of commercial color offset printing from 65 years ago, circa MCML [1950].

Although Santa's fashions and class evolved over time, surprisingly little changed since Thomas Nast sketched the first American version of the jolly North Pole denizen in 1863.

Presented here are eight mid-century modern iterations of the man himself.

In the spirit of Christmas, please download, alter, and share these images anyway you see fit.