A new-to-me-mailbox card for the last day of July

 

 If you have read here much at all, you know it's no secret that I love Christmas cards featuring designs of mailboxes.  Recently I was sorting through some Christmas cards and readying to sell them in my Etsy shop, and came upon this beauty I hadn't seen before.

I've often said that I don't know why these cards speak to me as they do.   I guess the main appeal for me is of a more innocent time; that people would send gift-wrapped, string-tied parcels through the mail and they would actually arrive safely; that sprigs of holly or evergreen, snipped from the sender's yard, would be tucked in with packages, so simple, yet such beautiful enhancements.

This pretty red mailbox is mounted upon what looks like a fence post. It appears that pine and holly were planted at its base, for sprigs of both seem to be growing there.  A small wrapped gift is also at the mailbox's base.  

There's not a package or letter to be seen in this mailbox; instead it is stuffed with poinsettias and holly tied up with red ribbons.  A pair of cardinals adds yet another touch of red to this festive scene.

What a July this has been!  When I started in to post for Christmas in July 2026, I really had no idea if I would be able to post every day.  To be honest, it didn't seem likely.  But God gave me ideas and in His timing and strength I was able to post daily.  I hope this has been as enjoyable for my readers as it has been for me!

 

A pretty mailbox themed card

Longtime readers know of my obsession with Christmas cards featuring mailboxes.  I recently came upon the one above in a sample book of cards from Sunshine Cards'  "Nationally Famous Artists Line".

I love the house in the distance, the stone walls and the falling snow,  not to mention the couple waving on the doorstep.  It is just a bit odd that the mailman is walking and has a mailbag, when this is clearly a rural route and appears to be out in the  middle of nowhere.  It really seems as if he should be driving a jeep!

Inside the card is this little quote:

It says: "Whatever else is lost with the years -- whatever else changes, Christmas remains -- a time of happy recollections -- a time for remembering treasured friends."

Isn't that lovely?  It reminds me of a beautiful poem, Let Us Keep Christmas, which I blogged about in 2014.  Read it and see if you agree.

A special new mailbox card

Anyone who's read either of my blogs in December knows how much I enjoy Christmas cards depicting mailboxes.  You can read a whole post about it here, in fact: Mailboxes Et Cetera, and see a bunch of the vintage mailbox cards that I find endlessly fascinating. 

But this year I was blessed with a brand new Christmas card with a mailbox theme ... and how sweet it is!  My daughter in Nevada sent me this card.  The scan does not do it justice.  The background is a lovely soft blue, and sparkly snow is at the base of the scene.  Outgoing mail is tucked in the shiny metallic mailbox, while snow is drifted on its top along with an evergreen swag and a perky red cardinal.  Beneath the box, a wrapped gift nestles amid greenery and two lighted lanterns.  The three-dimensional quality of this card is so much fun!

 Inside the card, the simple but oh-so-meaningful message reads: "No matter how many miles are between us, you're always close at heart this time of year."

 I used the card as part of the Christmas decorations on my hutch.  Love it!

Hope you have enjoyed this look at a truly unusual and lovely Christmas card from a lovely daughter!

A new-to-me mailbox card!

If you've been reading here long at all, you know of my love for Christmas cards depicting scenes that include mailboxes.  In my current cleaning and sorting spree, I've found maybe a half dozen of cards with this type of scene, ones I had never seen before.  They are all different.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I found the first one ... and then there were more!

This one has some interesting elements: the barn in the background; the horse and sleigh; the sprig of holly in with the cards and package; the clump of birch trees at right.  As always, I am thoroughly charmed by these nostalgic images.  Hope you've enjoyed seeing this one!

Another mailbox card

If you've read here at my Christmas kitchen for long, you know my love of cards depicting mailboxes.  I can't even say for sure why I like these images so much, only that they seem to speak of a more civilized era, a simpler, kinder, better way of life.  A sort of reminder of innocence and the way life should be, I guess.

This mailbox card is a newer one, but I like everything about it: the weathered post the mailbox sits on, the falling snow, the greenery, pine cones, and red berries, and the sweet cardinals and chickadees.  This summer, interestingly, we have both cardinals and chickadees in our yard.  We have never had cardinals on our property before, to my knowledge.  It is so much fun to realize we have them nesting here this summer.

Happy Christmas in July!  Do you enjoy cards with a particular theme or from a particular era?

A sweet little mailbox card

If you have read here much at all, you know that I love Christmas cards featuring designs of mailboxes.  Recently I was going through a box of old, used Christmas cards and came upon this very small card with a mailbox design.  Another one for my collection!

I've often said that I don't know why these cards speak to me as they do.  The landscape on this one is very similar to where I grew up, and I love that the mailbox is mounted upon a tree stump or maybe even a fence post.  I guess the main appeal for me is of a more innocent time; that people would send gift-wrapped parcels through the mail and they would arrive safely; that springs of holly or evergreen would be tucked in with packages, so simple, yet such beautiful enhancements.

And now, back to my real-life Christmas kitchen where fudge-making and cookie-baking are about to commence!

A new-to-me mailbox card!

If you've read my Christmas blog for long, you know how very much I enjoy Christmas card scenes depicting mailboxes.  Today I was emptying out a cardboard box I found in a closet and came upon this beauty from the mid-1980s.  It's funny ... sometimes cards don't look like much when you first look at them, but once you scan them and get them on the computer you see all sorts of details.

I think the artist used some real artistic license with this scene, because, while the lights are on in the house and the shadows on the snow have the blue look they get at twilight, the flag is up on the mailbox, indicating the mail in the box is outgoing mail.  No true country person would ever put the outgoing mail in the box at night and leave the mailbox door open.  What if it snowed overnight?

So the picture isn't very accurate, but it is surely a pretty scene.  I love the log post the mailbox sits on, the cardinal perched on a snowy branch, and the smoke wafting up from the chimney.  There's even a lighted lamppost at the end of the driveway.  Charming!  This is a lovely addition to my collection of mailbox cards.

An interesting mailbox card

Anyone who has visited my Christmas kitchen very much knows how much I enjoy vintage Christmas cards.  And Christmas cards, new or old, that feature images of mailboxes are some of my very favorites.

I guess that this card is from the 1970s or 1980s.  What a very different mailbox-themed card it is!  I acquired it when I put out an appeal for used cards to utilize in art projects at a Christian school, and have never seen another one like it.  What I find so interesting (in addition to the unusual style of the mailbox itself) is the flowers. Where do you suppose this is?  It's clearly Christmas time, going by the package wrapping, but it's somewhere flowers are blooming in December.  Hawaii?  Or Australia or New Zealand?  I'll probably never know!

Hope you've enjoyed this unusual card from my collection.

Another mailbox card

Today I am celebrating Rudolph Day (the 25th) a little bit early.  Wednesdays are always busy for me, so I'm not sure how many Christmasy things I can do on the actual day.  Today I was cleaning the glass on my little glass-topped crafting desk, and changing out the cards I display there.  The ones I took down were Christmasy, but the ones I replaced them with were still pretty wintry, since we still have tons of snow, ice, and subzero temps up here.

If you've visited my Christmas kitchen often, you know I am completely fascinated by Christmas cards depicting mailboxes, especially those filled with presents and cards.  So back when I was posting about some of my newer mailbox cards, I noticed this one which I'd displayed beneath the glass on my crafting desk.  At the time, the desk was pretty laden with projects and so I decided I would scan that card later when I changed out the cards.  And here it is!

It's another card with a design by Chuck Sumerlin.  Although it's not as pretty as some of the older ones in my collection, I like the contrast of the black & white scene with the colorful packages.  Hope you've enjoyed seeing it, too!

Christmas mailboxes, 1950

I love this old photo, which I found in a 1950 copy of New Hampshire Troubadour. It reminds me of old family photos of this vintage in which one of my aunts, a college student at the time, very much resembled the girl approaching the mailboxes in this picture.

This photo just speaks volumes to me of the simpler, happier way life used to be. The day's mail has arrived, so the girl leaves the woodsmoke-tinged warmth of the farmhouse and heads out into the chilly December sunshine to get the mail. No snow blowers back then; just a simple path through the snow. The packages waiting at the mailboxes are simple too -- wrapped in brown paper or holiday wrapping paper and string, a no-no in the post office's book these days. No worries, either, about someone stealing the gifts. Life was so much simpler in so many ways back then. I'm thankful to have some photos like this one to remind me.

Here again at last...

Oh, how much I wanted to post in each of my blogs regularly throughout the Christmas season!! I love Christmas so dearly, and want to share my thoughts about it with others. But this season, for whatever reason, there just hasn't been the time to post the way I wanted to. I've been in the Christmas kitchen a lot, and hope to post about my adventures there after the big day. But for the next few days, I'm going to post some scans of my favorite vintage Christmas cards from my collection. I will post a different card on each blog, hoping that these will inspire and delight my readers as Christmas draws ever nearer. I love, love, love this card. It just evokes Christmas in days gone by, with all of the cards and packages piled on the mailboxes, ready to go off to family and friends. This is how it was in my childhood. How I wish my grandchildren could know this simpler way of life! I try to convey it to them the best that I can. Hope someone else enjoys this card today!