Each year the kids and I (Megs) create some sort of art to incorporate into our Christmas Cards. In the early days, it was only visual art that we included on the physical card, but some years it was reprises of poems and songs that required additional inserts, and in 2023 we even made it participatory.
2023
Invader!! At the end of 2022, Arav and I began playing Flash Invaders via a joint account on my phone. By spring 2024 it occurred to me that he should start his own account, and luckily we had an old iPhone laying around (and he could flash via my Wi-Fi hotspot). It became so fun and addictive (and we found so many other friends playing it) that soon Ashriya joined in with her own account. By September, even Aditya caved and joined in.
Backing up, Invader is a French street artist who keeps his identity a secret. He started putting up tiled installations around the streets of Paris in 1998, and has since “invaded” many other cities around the world. In 2014 he launched an app which turns his thousands of mosaics into a global scavenger hunt.
It has proved a fun way to enhance our exploration of Paris (and beyond). In Paris alone there are 1,494 as December 2023!
So when it came around to culminating this year with a piece of art for our Christmas card, our choice was obvious, and so much fun.
We created a simple tool using Google Sheets, using conditional formatting to play around with Christmassy Invaders and Invader scenes. Then we made this shareable version that you can download and use yourself! Have fun and show us what you create!!
Two quick notes on that: 1) It works best if you save a copy to your own Google Drive. 2) You can also open it on a PC or Apple device with Microsoft products installed, but it seems not to want to play nicely with Apple Numbers and I don’t have time to sort that at the moment.
2022
This year, having moved to France for a year or two, we are of course feeling a bit homesick at the holidays. As we evolve our holiday traditions, I guess we are feeling a bit … cheesy. 😉
Et voilà! Three renditions of “I Saw Mama Eating Allll the Cheese,” to the tune of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” [drumroll please…. ]
2021
In 2021, the ever-present and pesky squirrels around our new home inspired us to create our own versions of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” featuring them, each in our own creative ways.
There are also lots of jokes that until you may not understand unless you have visited our home. For example, the “stockings hung by the chalk fire” refer to the fact that the fireplace in our parlor is adorned with chalkboard paint on which we draw fires and welcome messages.
But there’s also plenty of fun for all in our poems even if you haven’t yet come to our home. Here is the file with the original, and our 3 new versions.
2020
Oh 2020. What a year. We ended it with aspirations of hope for all sorts of things different from what 2020 brought, so that inspired our card art.
Arav made the H and the E, and Ashriya took the O and the P.
2019
In 2019 I let them draw whatever they wanted. They both went for classic scenes: Ashriya (8) opted for the nativity, and Arav (6) decided to capture the search for the perfect the Christmas tree.
Love that Ashriya depicted Mary with great style (like Ashriya herself, naturally).
And even Arav took note of the fashion she included, depiciting himself a nice, festive striped-shirt, and (very uncharacteristically) a pair of pants.
2018
In late November 2018, 20 years after dropping out of an oil painting class in college (blank canvas syndrome is real!!), I took out my oil paints, determined to paint something. And I did! I painted my favorite view of the the Red Hook Grain Terminal.
The oil paints had taken over the kitchen table in our tiny apartment for a few days, so of course the kids wanted in on the action. So, we all painted Christmas trees. Painting is a lot harder than it looks! But we had fun.
2017
For 2017, we were feeling the need to put some peace out into the world. So, we made a sort of pop of peace doves. They were also the theme for the Cookie Party ornaments that year.
2016
As I write this in Paris, in 2022, it has been such an enjoyable trip down memory lane!
In 2016, it was a nativity scene in colored pencil by Ashriya (5 years old), and a nativity collage by Arav (3 years old).
2015
It is fun to look back at Ashriya’s versions of nativity scenes over the years, this first one on record at age 4. Mary, Baby Jesus and Joseph.
And here is Arav’s depiction of Santa’s sleigh pulled by reindeers, at age 2.
2014
In 2014, we were playing around with water colors around Christmas time and I really fell in love with these two angels. It was these two angels that inspired me to begin incorporating art into our Christmas cards, and I used them as my starting point.
I put them on the front of our card with the caption “Hark the Herald Angels . . .” lyrics from the song of the same name.
. . . and in the inside of the card, at the top it read “. . . SING!” which completes the line from the song.
Below this were two photos, one of each kid rocking out. It was an era of nightly, post dinner concerts that they performed for us. Oh how I miss those days, but thank goodness for videos!
20o1
Growing up, my mom always encouraged us to make cards, which we did for birthdays and thank you notes. But it wasn’t until 2001 that I made a set of Christmas Cards to send to friends and family.