Christmas Greetings from Champlain:
the McLellan Christmas Cards

    Hugh McLellan printed many types of historical documents with his Moorsfield Press.  His press also allowed him to print high quality Christmas cards that he sent to friends and relatives.  His son Woody and his wife Hulda continued the tradition of printing cards up into the late 1970s.  Today, the cards have become collector's items because of their high quality print made with the press's characteristic Caslon typeface.  

    It is not known when Hugh started printing Christmas cards but a note on a 1970s card makes mention to a 1954 card which is three years before the first card shown below.  Hugh signed the 1960 card which was three years before he died. 

    When Woody and Hulda took over printing Christmas cards, they made their cards intellectually stimulating with a tongue-in-cheek style of writing.  One has to think carefully about some of their quippes to realize the double meaning of what they wrote.  Every year had a theme and the McLellans gave a title to each years' card such as "McLellan Thearatrical Agency", "McLellan Statistics Inc.", "McLellan Investments", "McLellan Hotel Guides" or "McLellan Surveys," for example.  Some of their cards used material from the family historical collection. 

    Many of the cards shown below were owned by Dorothy McLellan, daughter of Hugh.  The collection of cards is not complete and some years are missing.  All of the cards are from the collection owned by the author.