Greeting Cards From Soviet Holidays Past

One can find all sorts of old stuff in Tashkent, plenty of relics, detritus from the Soviet era. For this holiday season, time to look back at how Christmas and New Year's were celebrated in greeting/postcards during Soviet times. Happy Holidays, comrade.

The Kremlin wishes you a Happy New Year. Officially. What, you didn't think that giant communist operations put out corporate greeting cards as if they were IBM?

More of a traditional card, all decked out in folksy design cues. Santa partying with the animals. Tea for him, a carrot for the rabbit. Slurp it down and chomp it up.

Good thing that rabbit has been fed. Forget reindeer, go with a juiced-up bunny.

Rabbits suddenly not available? No problem, Santa can take a rocket ship or even a snowmobile, whatever was hip that year.

Getting back to nature with white birch trees from way up north.

Going with the 1960s-1970s stop motion block look. Giving mad props to local, Uzbek symbols, places. Notice the cotton bud filigree and the center clock graphic featuring the Lenin Museum and the adjacent clock tower on an office building. Cotton is the country's biggest crop and the buildings can still be found in downtown Tashkent.

The space race, planting a tree on the moon. Staked!

Happy Holidays to everyone! It's Sarah's and James' last year in Uzbekistan. Next summer, they will move to Canberra, Australia for three years. A new adventure and new holiday traditions to explore.