{"id":15189,"date":"2013-12-25T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=15189"},"modified":"2019-11-26T06:39:13","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:39:13","slug":"the-little-christmas-card-that-never-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/12\/25\/the-little-christmas-card-that-never-was\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Christmas Card That Never Was"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"never-was\"<\/a>Sometimes your first idea isn’t necessarily your best…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Thanksgiving turkey was demolished; the gravy congealed and the stuffing reduced to tan crumbs when we awoke on Black Friday in the black grip of terror realizing that neither of us had a solid idea for a Christmas card. What to do? What to do?<\/p>\n

Shot with Santa? The local mall has a terrifically authentic looking Santa Claus, but our son has grown so tall that he would completely blot out the jolly one. What would be the point of paying almost thirty clams for a shot with an obscured Saint Nick?<\/p>\n

It was too late to get matching outfits and take pictures on a beach with “Happy Holidays from the Williamses”<\/em> scrawled along the top. Too cold as well. We’re not talented enough actors to effectively pretend we weren’t freezing to death on a windswept beach.<\/p>\n

What to do?<\/p>\n

I looked at this year’s Halloween costume<\/a> that we couldn’t bring ourselves to discard and came up with an idea. We put a lot of work into that costume. It was so nice we were going to use it twice!<\/p>\n

\"tv-xmas\"I told Tina that we could have a fireplace video playing on the iPad TV tube and deck Lloyd out in a Santa hat and beard Tina had recently sewn<\/a>. She liked the idea so we shanghaied our son; suited him up and took a couple hundred pictures.<\/p>\n

\"tv-santa-beard\"<\/a>Lloyd wasn’t really into it. Neither were we. We reviewed the shots, and none of them were doing it for us.<\/p>\n

Maybe a sarcastic crack on the inside will save it.<\/p>\n

No. Nobody will get it.<\/p>\n

It was a crappy idea.<\/p>\n

We scrapped it.
\n\"trash-tv\"<\/a>When all else fails, go traditional. Tina planted our boy in front of the Christmas tree — SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! –and it came out beautifully!<\/p>\n

\"XmasCard2013\"

Merry Christmas!<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s a reason why cliches are cliches — they work!<\/p>\n

I’m keeping my eye open for some matching sweaters for next year’s card. I think I’ll be able to get a pretty good deal on a post-holiday closeout. You’ll find me at Ross<\/em> or Burlington Coat Factory<\/em> on the 26th!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes your first idea isn’t necessarily your best…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,82,176],"tags":[2063,86,2128,3674,2963,3668,2856,2961,2962],"class_list":["post-15189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drawer-cards","category-halloween","category-holiday","tag-cardboard","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-card","tag-diy","tag-fireplace","tag-halloween","tag-ipad","tag-retro-television","tag-retro-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-3WZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10838,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/12\/12\/more-retro-gift-tags\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":0},"title":"More Retro Gift Tags","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As our gift to you this holiday season, we're offering a set of three free downloadable gift tags! Just download, save to your desktop, and print on sticker paper or card stock. Click on the Santa image above to start downloading a letter-sized, printable\u00a0PDF. There are more here!","rel":"","context":"In "DIY"","block_context":{"text":"DIY","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/diy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Santa-color.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Santa-color.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Santa-color.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14751,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/11\/01\/the-retro-tv-costume\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":1},"title":"The Retro TV Costume","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"November 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Joe proposed making a vintage TV costume, initially, I wasn't so hot on the idea. It didn't seem as exciting as the Pinball Machine, the Fortune Teller, or the Seeburg Jukebox.\u00a0Then I began to think about the first TV I can remember in my parent's living room - it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Halloween"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/TVcar.jpg?fit=639%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/TVcar.jpg?fit=639%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/TVcar.jpg?fit=639%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5652,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/12\/20\/retro-gift-tags\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":2},"title":"Retro Gift Tags","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"December 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we are offering our dear readers free downloadable gift tags. Just download 'em, save to your desktop, and print away! They can be printed on sticker paper or card stock. Just click on the tag image below to start downloading a letter-sized printable PDF. Be nice, not naughty! Our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holiday"","block_context":{"text":"Holiday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/holiday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/aero-santa.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/aero-santa.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/aero-santa.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2078,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/12\/21\/hey-kids-its-santa-klaus\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":3},"title":"Hey, Kids! It’s Santa Klaus!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my Christmas card from 1986. Xerox copies, newspaper letters, ink spattered with a toothbrush and Klaus Kinski. It's what Christmas is all about! The mark of quality!","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Santa-Klaus.jpg?fit=385%2C778&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":838,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/12\/19\/christmas-1996\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":4},"title":"Christmas 1996","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This was the Christmas card for 1996. Tina and I got married that October and we honeymooned in Las Vegas which we thought would be kitschy fun, but was really depressing. We were happy to be married, but Vegas is a living Pieter Brueghel painting. We paid an extra 50\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Santa Bets it All by Joe Williams","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Xmas-1996.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":804,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/12\/15\/christmas-1998\/","url_meta":{"origin":15189,"position":5},"title":"Christmas 1998","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another Christmas card from Tina. This one has a Santa Claus Conquers The Martians feel to it without the Martians.","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Xmas-in-Space_1998","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Xmas-in-Space_1998.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}