Kind Thoughts

More scans from my card collection for you. Today's theme is snow-covered cottages. Apologies if you are currently stranded in a snow-covered dwelling of any kind. They might not seem so appealing to you, under the circumstances.

Cottages appear quite a lot on greeting cards of the 1940s, sometimes surrounded by summery flowers, and sometimes in snow scenes like these. I'm not one of these people who long to live in a country cottage. I've spent time in cottages, and generally found them to be cold and dark, and not somewhere I want to live in real life.

However, I find these sort of illustrations to be very charming, and almost unbearably sweet, in their portrayal of idyllic country scenes. Who wouldn't want to walk home in the snow to these cosy cottages, with their smoking chimneys telling of warm firesides and home baking?

I find vintage Christmas cards have an surprisingly strong emotional impact on me, if I let them. Something to do with that impossibly perfect Christmas that we've all been brought up to believe in? A vision of the happy home and endless contentment? They just seem so... sweet. I can't think of a better word.

I don't why these old cards seem so much sweeter and more innocent that today. People are not really any different, and the sender of those 'Kind Thoughts' might have been an insincere neighbour who kicked your cat. Or the one who wished you 'Happy Days' might have been a grumpy aunt who picked the first card out of the box.

But I just see the pictures, and enjoy the idyll.