Season's Greetings

This whimsical Christmas graphic is taken from a holiday card the Packers sent out in 1959.

The cover of the card reads:

Season's Greetings

and the inside simply:

Green Bay Packers

Santa Vince, clad in his green and gold suit, cracks the whip as he speeds through the Christmas Eve night to deliver coal to all the other teams in the league. Talk about a "Packer Sweep".... The only thing better would be to have the "reindeer" identified by number.

We are able to date the card to Vince's first season in Green Bay with a little detective work. My first thought was narrowing it down to 1959-1960 based on the complete absence of Dad Braisher's famous "G" logo (introduced for the 1961 season). Still, leaving off the logo wouldn't have been unheard of in the pre-merchandising era, when logos weren't as omnipresent as they are today. No, the telling information is in the back of Santa's sleigh. He has presents for all the teams in the League, but nothing for the Cowboys, who joined the NFL in 1960 (and the Cowboys are a great candidate for a stocking full of coal).

If you're interested in adding this vintage card to you collection, it and others like it, are available at Titletown Nostalgia.

And, as Clement C. Moore wrote nearly two hundred years ago:

"Happy Christmas to all,
and to all a good-night."

 
(photo credit: Titletown Nostalgia)