COLLECTION #115: Vintage 1930s Christmas Cards with Envelopes

I love these colorful and fun Christmas cards that came with their own unique envelopes. I collect a lot of ephemera: greeting cards included, and I rarely find envelopes with them. That's not really a bad thing, because envelopes are usually quite common and ordinary, and don't necessarily add to the value or appearance of the cards. But these envelopes are so special, I wanted to feature them in today's collection.

Each envelope has a unique design and shape that sets them apart from plain ordinary envelopes. I assume these were commercially produced, but it is possible that they were hand crafted: made from wrapping paper or other Christmas paper.

Each one has some metallic gold as part of the design, which is very special! One of the designs, as you can see, is quite modern and stylistic. It doesn't actually go with the card design, but the papers match, so they do go together. 

I love the one card with the "Merrie Olde Englande" type artwork theme.  That seems to be a more common Christmas category of the 1930s than we see today. I really enjoy looking at old cards to catch a glimpse of the types of artwork and decoration that were evocative of a particular era.  Each decade and era had certain motifs and styles that were popular during that time, and knowing these different styles helps to date them, and chronicle the design fashions of the day.

I hope you enjoy my little group of old cards and their colorful envelopes!