Victorian Christmas Card with Children, Holly & Mistletoe

The verse at the bottom reads 'All Merriment and much Good Cheer, A Christmas bright I wish you dear' — yet the accompanying illustration features two rosy-cheeked children clutching festive botanicals with the intensity of litigators presenting evidence and exorcists banishing demons, their unhinged cheerfulness suggesting this was drawn in the Victorian era or perhaps a multi-level marketing convention. Ellen Clapsaddle, who signed this little gem in the lower left corner, has rendered these children with proportions implying the heads were ordered from a different catalog than the bodies, and they're somehow smiling about it. The verse itself is decorated with illuminated drop caps like this is the Book of Kells, because apparently wishing someone a Merry Christmas required the full manuscript treatment.