Vintage Halloween Greeting Card Children Costume Jack-o-Lantern

The decision to position a boy in a blue suit planting an unsolicited kiss on a clearly unenthusiastic girl while brandishing what appears to be a lit firework behind her back makes 'A Joyous Hallowe'en' feel less like a greeting and more like a Victorian incident report — truly, the gift that keeps on litigating. The girl, dressed in a yellow frock tastefully adorned with three black cats, sits rigidly in her chair radiating the energy of someone mentally drafting a restraining order, while a leering jack-o'-lantern watches approvingly from the floor like a witness who will say nothing. The card's own rhyme — 'I wish you joy on Hallowe'en, the joy of lots of fun I mean' — works overtime to clarify that this is, in fact, fun, which is exactly what you say when it isn't.