When we saw artist Julia Valeeva's final illustrations for our Winter Holidays story (Nov/Dec 2009 issue), we quickly realized they would make great holiday gift cards.
Printed on matte, 100%recycled stock, these beautiful cards will make a festive impression on all who receive them. The cards are blank inside. One set contains 10 cards with the same image, plus 10 high quality wove envelopes.
Text on reverse of each card: Holiday Sheaf ("Snop"). The tradition of a fir tree at Christmas was imported into Russia from the West rather recently. An older tradition was to bring into the home a sheaf of grain (in Russian, snop), either the first or last sheaf harvested during the previous growing season. It was decorated with ribbons and placed in the icon corner during winter solstice holidays. Later, grain from that snop was mixed into the seeds for the next year’s crop.
