a nutcracker christmas card

"Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man ? and then he will spoil his house."

Matthew 12:29

This Christmas card only requires a bit of printing,
 folding and pasting. I chose a traditional red and
 green plaid paper for the card, printed out the
 graphic below and pasted a few little corners
 onto the edges of the graphic to hold it onto the
 front of my card.

Description: Nutcrackers in the form of wooden carvings of a soldier, knight, king, or other profession have existed since at least the 15th century. These nutcrackers portray a person with a large mouth which the operator opens by lifting a lever in the back of the figurine. Originally one could insert a nut in the big-toothed mouth, press down and thereby crack the nut. Modern nutcrackers in this style serve mostly for decoration, mainly at Christmas time, a season of which they have long been a traditional symbol. The ballet The Nutcracker derives its name from this festive holiday decoration. The original nutcrackers were first seen in Germany and were thought to have guardian-like properties because of their strong appearance.

Supplies:

• decorative red and green plaid paper
• corner punch
• graphic of two nutcrackers by Kathy Grimm
• glue
• scissors 
• heavier white cardstock

Directions:

1.  Print the nutcracker graphic out to the size that you prefer.
2. Mount the graphic with glue on top of the decorative plaid paper.
3. Punch four embossed corners from either white, red, or green solid colored paper and then glue these at the four corners of your printed graphic.
4. Glue the picture on top of a folded sheet of heavier cardstock.
5. Below is one of many Christmas themed graphics I have produced in color pastel pencils, German nutcrackers are some of my favorite subjects to draw for holiday greetings. These two nutcrackers are very traditional, a soldier and a beer drinker dressed up in lederhosen.

These two nutcrackers are very traditional, 
a soldier and a beer drinker dressed up
 in lederhosen.

What kinds of written things might I include along with the card?
Quotes:

"Of all the toys available, none is better designed than the owner himself. A large multipurpose plaything, its parts can be made to move in almost any direction. It comes completely assembled, and it make a sound when you jump on it." by Stephen Baker

"The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Illustration:  Playfulness is a more important consideration than play. The former is an attitude of mind; the latter is a passing outward manifestation if this attitude. When things are treated simply as vehicles of suggestion, what is suggested overrides the thing. Hence the playful attitude is one of freedom. The person is not bound to the physical traits of things, nor does he care whether a thing really means (as we say) what he takes it to represent. When the child plays horse with a broom and cars with chairs, the fact that the broom does not really represent a horse, or a chair a locomotive, is of no account. In order, then, that playfulness may not terminate in arbitrary fancifulness and in building up an imaginary world alongside the world of actual things, it is necessary that the play attitude should gradually pass into a work attitude. -- John Dewey, "How We Think."

More Links To Nutcracker Christmas Cards:

• Love this fold out nutcracker card
• Waltzingmouse nutcracker stamp
• Adorable nutcracker gift card holders
  

Poetry:

He begged me for the little toys at night,

That I had taken, lest he play too long,

The little broken toys-his sole delight.

I held him close in wiser arms and strong,

And sang with trembling voice the even-

song.

Reluctantly the drowsy lids drooped low,

The while he pleaded for the boon denied.

Then, when he slept, sweet dream, content

to know,

I mended then and laid them by his side

That he might find them in the early light,

And wake the gladder for this joyous sight.

So, Lord, like children, at the even fall

We weep for broken playthings, loath to

part,

While Thou, unmoved, because Thou know-

est all,

Dost fold us from the treasures of out

heart;

And we shall find them at the morning-tide

Awaiting us, unbroke and beautiful.

--Ainslee's Magazine.

Wow, that's a lot of nutcrackers!