The White House has selected Hallmark Cards, Inc., for the eighth year in a row, to produce the official 2008 presidential holiday card. The cards will be mailed to foreign dignitaries, friends, and family of President and Mrs. George W. Bush. The card image is an exclusive design of a view from the Truman Balcony of the White House.
Artist T. Allen Lawson, a well-known painter from Main, was selected by Mrs. Bush to create the original artwork for the card. Lawson's painting is reproduced on the card, made with recycled paper, as a tip-on on elegant stock with a debossed edge. An embossed gold foil presidential seal highlights the insert page.
President and Mrs. Bush selected the following Bible verse from Matthew and brief message to be incorporated on the card:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16
The card also says, "May your heart and home be filled with the joys of the holiday season."
Hallmark's presidential card project leader Cindy Mahoney was thrilled to work on the card. "I am pleased that Hallmark was chosen by the Bush family to continue the important tradition of sending holiday cards," Mahoney said. "More than ever, people will find comfort and reassurance receiving cards this holiday season with messages of peace, love and appreciation."
Work began on the holiday card in July when a team from Hallmark began collaborating with Mrs. Bush's office.
Hallmark also made holiday cards for Vice President and Mrs. Cheney's official 2008 holiday cards.
Hallmark began making Christmas cards for presidents in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first White House Christmas card and started what has become a White House tradition. The company has created at least one card for each administration with exception of the Clinton Administration. The 2008 card is the 41st official card created by Hallmark for the White House.
In 1982, Hallmark donated its Presidential Christmas Card Collection to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The Hallmark Visitors Center adjacent to the Kansas City headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc., also displays the Presidential Christmas Card Collection.
