Victorian Christmas Greeting Card: Girl and Man with Gifts & Snow Village

Look closely at the man's striped cap — it's doing a lot of heavy lifting in what becomes apparent as a deeply uncomfortable scene: a dead-eyed blonde girl in a white fur-trimmed coat clutches her own muff with the thousand-yard stare of someone who has seen things, while this mustachioed figure hauls an entire Christmas tree on his back and juggles what appear to be gift boxes, a detail she is conspicuously, pointedly ignoring. He's looking at her. She is not looking at him. The snow-covered village church looms in the background like a silent witness to whatever interpersonal drama is unfolding in this festive hellscape. Victorian greeting card designers really said: warmth and joy are for cowards.