Vintage Halloween Witch Greeting Card, Early 1900s

This card tells a story of witches actively hunting children on Halloween night, with a leering witch in a dramatic pointed hat emerging from a swirl of yellow and grey smoke to reach her clawed hand toward two children — a boy in yellow and a girl in a blue bow — who are clinging to each other with the wide-eyed horror of people who just read the card's own text. A single candle burns cheerfully on the shelf behind her, because apparently the best way to create 'cozy holiday ambiance' is imminent supernatural child abduction. The printed message, 'On Hallowe'en the witches shout and they will get you if you don't watch out,' commits fully to the bit of threatening minors as a form of festive greeting, which really makes you appreciate how much the Victorian era understood about appropriate seasonal communication.