Victorian Christmas Greeting Card with Mistletoe & Snowy Cottage

While the card promises 'cordial greetings for Christmas-tide and every good wish for all good cheer' — a message so relentlessly pleasant it feels like a passive-aggressive note from someone who definitely remembered you forgot their birthday — the imagery tells a much darker story: a red barn sitting alone in a snow-covered void, surrounded by an oval wreath of mistletoe berries and framed by even MORE mistletoe garland running across the top like someone's aunt went absolutely feral at the craft store. A lone fence post and what appear to be footprints in the snow leading toward the barn, all under a starry night sky, give the whole thing the energy of a true crime cold open. And yet here we are, calling it 'festive.'