HOLIDAY POST CARDS

Besides its lasting art, every age has its kitsch, and because there is so much of it, this cheap popular art is pretty durable too. Consider this fine collection of holiday post cards, kindly lent to us by Mrs. Earl Moore of Weston, Connecticut. Cliché after cliché, these chromos march through the year’s calendar of feast and folly, carefully missing the real point of every holiday—yet somehow, perhaps because sixty or seventy years have passed since they were mailed in their millions for a penny each, a certain charm has crept over them. There’s George and his cherry tree, Abe, and (overleaf) a scoop of other fond figures. See that sneaky young man with the mistletoe? Wake up, Jane, wake up!