An Unwelcome Christmas Greeting- From Me To All Of DU!

[KittyWampus]

I am a history buff, especially of Victorian and Medieval England. So here's my Christmas offering to you all


When the Holidays get weird, here's some Victorian Christmas Cards to get some perspective:



Don't cry and be all emo, it's just the Christmas Emu:




What are the Holidays without a lobster-riding mouse?





This one was obviously for your partner in high school biology with whom you dissected that frog:





Revenge for "The Boar's Head" will be had after festivities and you're sleeping, drunk in bed:





And of course, no group of Kittywampus Holiday Greetings could exclude:

[pintobean]

1. Thanks, Kitty

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[2naSalit]

2. I'm not religious nor do I "celebrate" the holiday

but I like graphic arts... the last one I really like but the rest, as with a lot of the Victorian era, are downright creepy.

[KittyWampus]

3. Agreed, Victorian cards a graphic treasure trove of wtf's.

Some of it may be long lost cultural references. Some of it makes me think some of the artists were smoking some good opium.

[2naSalit]

5. Indeed.

I grew up in New England where there can be found a lot of Victorian and prior eras art and cultural stuff... and I am glad I wasn't around then. I would have been killed for what I think and say a thousand times over! Some of my relatives from that era used to refer to me as "a snake" because I wouldn't embrace their ideologies. Fortunately, as they grew very old they asked me to forgive them for terrorizing me with their religion as a child, which I did.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. YOURE FREEAKING ME OUT, MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KittyWampus]

6. I never sausage a thing:

[Warren DeMontague]

10. ....

[Marty McGraw]

11. Sounds like

You could use a hand....

[Warren DeMontague]

14. That's the last time I sample the ayahuasca punch at the office xmas party,

I tell you what.

[Marty McGraw]

15. If it doesn't Tip ya...

... it can only make you stronger!


Just be careful this time of year. The Longer shadows alone can make one feel like they're out to get ya!

[zentrum]

19. +1. Thanks

…..for the glimpse into childhood world.

[zentrum]

20. Yowza!

[progressoid]

7. Whaaaa?

Where did you find these?

[KittyWampus]

21. They are lurking out there on the internet, here's one more for you:

Not so much creepy as just bizarre:


I ran out of toys to give so you're someone's present this year!

[progressoid]

25. Well, some are creepy...

[Tipperary]

8. I love the emu card!

[Marty McGraw]

12. anaBananna Has some

know-how about handling those pesky emus.

[roguevalley]

9. there's a while genre of cards from then that has the dead person

in question, usually a child sitting or sagging with the other children for a remembrance foto.

They weren't afraid of the macabre, the victorians. Thanks for this stuff, Kitty Wampus. What a different world things were then.

[lpbk2713]

13. Pic #5 ... an old Christmas standard if there ever was one.

Burnt out ends of smoky days
The still cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies ,another night is over
Another day is dawning, touch me

It is so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me
You'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun

[Octafish]

16. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Peace, Joy and Prosperity to YOU and to ALL!

Счастливого Рождества!

[KittyWampus]

18. Soviet Santa shooting off a Snow Gun which obviously celebrates

the launching of the Solstice Cosmonaut!

[Marty McGraw]

22. Has to clear off

those pesky hilltops to make way for his arrival

[zentrum]

17. Fabulous. Thanx so much.

[Maeve]

23. What, no dead robins???

At the Ohio History Center we have a "Dickens of a Christmas" every year and the Victorians had a strange sense of ...whimsy, I guess you could call it. So terrify the kiddies with ghost stories and tell them they may be kidnapped for being bad and just have a great old-fashioned holiday season!

[niyad]

24. great collection

[longship]

26. A fucking wonderful thread!

This is one of the best DU posts ever.

Kudos to all of you.

And Merry Merry and Happy Happy to you all!

[Scuba]

27. Great thread. Thanks to all.

[Hortensis]

28. Thanks for the present, KittyWampus and others.

Merry Unwelcome Christmas to you too.

[JunkyardAngel83]

29. Amazing.

Thank you for sharing. I must show some of these to friends. I wonder if that's Santa's naughty or nice list in the lobster-riding rat's hand.

Merry Christmas, KittyWampus!

[KittyWampus]

30. Maybe it's a menu!

LOL!