This is a Current Christmas card, so it can't be quite as vintage as it looks. I can't even remember how long ago I purchased these -- I want to say it was in the 2000s so this design is obviously a reissue of an older card. Since this is the last one of these, I decided I had to scan it -- and I'm thinking I will save it to send to someone special.
The signature looks like it says T Russo, but it's actually J Russo -- J for Joseph. He was evidently an artist who worked for Current, Inc. back when they were still called LooArt. One card by him that I saw on eBay was mailed in 1966 -- the postmarked envelope was being sold with the card. I have seen other of his cards on eBay as well. Some are biblical scenes like Mary and Joseph or the shepherds. There is one of a Santa on a park bench in a big city, feeding the birds. There are some pretty New England scenes as well, but none speak to me like this one does.
This scene reminds me so strongly of times when my brother or several of us kids would go out with my dad to get a Christmas tree from our nearby woods. The mountains both near and far, the treeline, the humps and hollows of the snow-covered landscape, the suggestion of a brook -- it all looks so much like the farm where I grew up.( Our house was brown like this one but otherwise there's no resemblance as far as the house goes.)
I'm not sure, though, that we ever walked to get the tree ... I think we got it in our Jeep pickup. My main memories concerning the tree itself have to do with my mother never liking the tree that was brought home. I think there may even have been times when he cut more than one so he wouldn't have to go back.
Oh, the memories one vintage Christmas card can trigger! Have a wonderful Christmas Eve, everyone!
Oh yes! I Love this scene so much. We did go cut our own trees when we lived in NH and Maine, but not on our own property. We would have to go to a tree farm, but it was still a similar scene with the snow, etc. I can relate to your mother...I was the fussy one about finding the "perfect tree". We would walk around every tree in the field, looking for that perfect tree, and my husband and kids would patiently wait for me to decide which one would be the perfect tree to cut. Funny, so often after the tree is cut and you bring it home and into the house you see all the bare spots, etc., that you didn't notice in the field. So of course those sides of the tree went to the back and faced the wall. Thankfully we never had a place to put a tree where it could be seen from all sides! LOL. Also, when I was young and growing up in Florida, a friend of the family would bring us a tree that he cut out of his woods. Florida pines are not like northern pines...and the trees looked more like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. My mother was grateful for the "gift", but inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) she was grieved that we no longer had the pretty trees from our Pennsylvania farm. Eventually they would buy a tree from a tree lot, which were better. The artificial tree didn't come along until we kids were grown. Thank you for this walk down memory lane for me as well. I love this picture!
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