Xmas Cards

1984 – First attempt at the immature age of 25. My roommate, Lee Pedersen, took this photo as we staged the aftermath of a blow out that never happened. Yes, that’s a lampshade and a bottle of Chapin and Gore in the pic, as well as a pith helmet and random clothes from my closet. This initial mailing list was likely just 30 or 40 family and friends.

1985 – Slightly more mature card here but I look like I’m 17. I remember that this pic was taken in the TV studio at COX Cable, where I worked at the time. This seemed like something my father would have done and I remember that this was pretty well received.

1986 – Maturing a bit more with the help of a professional photographer. No digital camera back then so 5 frames were taken without advancing the film. I remember that my mother kept this card on her dresser for quite a while. Maybe I was onto something.

1987 – I rented a public hot tub downtown, which was the rage at the time. Not likely to happen today but back then the owner let me pour some detergent into the tub.. This turned out to be a very fun night after about an hour of shooting and drinking champagne before a few friends came later to join in. I remember that my grandfather took great delight in this card and he had it on display in his home for a long time.

1988 – I wrote this poem with the hope of bringing inspiration to people. I struggled with what to do with the photo and came up with this. This was not well received by my parents. It also raised the eyebrows of nearly every recipient. Maybe I pushed the envelope a bit too far here. Yes, it was a real gun and the kids belong to the photographer. I sure hope they’re doing OK these days.

1989 – Moving into a new decade, it felt appropriate to look back at the idiots and villains of the previous year. The caption read:…From Nineteen Ninnies.

1990 – I had started my own advertising consulting business and this seemed appropriate at the time. As usual, I wrote the poem first and then thought about how to treat the photo. At a local grocery store, I convinced the Salvation Army bell-ringer to let me pull off this “diversion” and I taped the sign over the Salvation Army sign.

1991 – Dr. Seuss had passed this year and the back of the card read:
from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Theodore Seuss Giesel (1904 – 1991)

1992 – Yes, I went skydiving! What a rush. It was September and as soon as I got my film back, I knew that this would be the theme of my card. The poem came about pretty quickly once I got my hands on a rhyming dictionary. I’ve been skydiving 3 times since and I remember that when I shared this experience with my parents, they were surprised and thanked me for telling them after the fact.

1993 – I was unable to come up with a joke about “decade” and this lazy solution became the answer. With no inspiring idea, it seemed simple enough to build a montage of cards past. It turned out to be a hit as many recipients told me they had not seen some of the earlier cards.

1994 – Again, I wrote the message first and tried to come up with a photo that would support the theme. The microphone is actually the viewfinder from my telescope. The nose ring is an earring provided by my neighbor who did not know that I would put it in my nostril.
Caption read: YO! YO! YO Merry Christmas

1995 – At the peak of Nebraska’s success in football, I borrowed a cheerleader outfit from a coworker. This is one of the very few guest appearances: Bo Gratton as Santa.

1996 – At the time, this card got a lukewarm reception from the recipients. It was a defining year. I lost my father, I had moved to Detroit with the prospect of being transferred to Seattle, and I was in a strange place without my friends and family. I was trying to convey the importance of not taking things too seriously and trying to look at the bright side of things. A coworker with small children stepped up and let me bury myself in their vast collection of stuffed animals. It remains a vivid memory and this effort grows on me as the years pass.

1997 – I finally made it to Seattle, something I had hoped to do for many years. Taken at a famous overlook of downtown with Mt. Rainier in the background, we were fortunate to have relatively clear skies. It was another year of dramatic change but Seattle immediately felt like home and my 15 years there was one of the greatest adventures of my life.

1998 – I was very lucky to make friends with a group of wonderful and welcoming people in pretty short order. Patty Worgan held an annual holiday party in mid-December and I had to really scramble to get these cards printed and mailed in time. Her party was a great opportunity to act like an idiot and these great parties served as a venue for more cards to come.

1999 – This was the advent of Y2K and the pending doom was the hot topic of the day. Some thought that computers would just shut down. As I pondered this unlikely doomsday scenario, the lack of rum seemed like an alarming threat. The pieces came together while on a plane flying back from Banff and my neighborhood liquor store allowed me into their storeroom.

2000 – One of my favorites and one that came about by sheer luck and chance. Reeve Baily was my photographer and the plan was to capture bright headlights and taillights through my windshield with my face in the rearview mirror. That did not work so we pulled off of the freeway to work on plan B. There happened to be a patrol car parked nearby and Reeve convinced the officer to give us 2 minutes for this photo opp. The only caveat was that neither he nor his car could be identified. Thank you Reeve!!

2001 – This one ended up being a dud. Nobody understood the punchline but, as always, the process is what sticks with me. I had the (lame) idea and my buddy Nick Rose came over to take the pic. The joke was supposed to be that caroling in Seattle happened in the rain, not snow. So I sat there with a spray bottle making myself look rained upon while Nick took pics. It was a stretch but at the time I thought it made sense. Note the elaborate Christmas lighting display in the background.

2002 – Inspired by the Jackass craze that seemed to consume pop culture at the time, I got permission from a home fixture store to stage this abomination. Thanks to Mark Dibble for doing the honors behind the camera. Mom was not pleased but this one remains one of the cards that people mention when the topic arises. Apparently, stupidity sells. (?)

2003 – I had been home for Thanksgiving and thought it a good idea to make a sports coat with Christmas lights embedded into the fabric. I went to Goodwill and then went to sewing the string of lights through the liner with Mom’s supervision. It took a while but it worked. Eventually I wore this jacket at holiday parties, not realizing it was essentially an electric blanket and that I needed to be near an outlet. But it was fun and many thanks to Linda Nealy for doing the honors behind the camera. I still have the jacket but its too hot to wear for any length of time.

2004 – Becoming more and more tired of the commercialization of Christmas, I took aim at the useless products one could buy during the Holiday season. Like a wind up frog with a Santa hat that clapped along with popular Christmas songs. Thanks to Susan Dibble for her patience in trying this concept and eventually landing on this photo at Sunset Park in Seattle.

2005 – This was a last minute effort to “just get something out”.
Not my best effort but at least I kept the string going.

2006 – A recreation of the 1986 card with the use of photoshop. I even brought back some characters from previous cards. This was a big hit among my friends in Omaha and those in Seattle who had not seen the previous version from 1986. This card was extremely well received and with my mailing list approaching 200, I was thrilled to receive dozens of calls and emails from family and friends.

2007 – A recreation from the 1985 card, this came about while at a photo session for a work project. LOTS of positive feedback from Seattle friends who had not seen the previous version from 22 years prior.

2008 – How do you celebrate a 25th anniversary? With silver. I met some buddies at happy hour with the intent of breaking out some silver face paint during a restroom break. I did the best I could covering my face but I didn’t really have enough time. I returned to my friends with blotches of silver and blotches of skin appearing and they looked at me dumfounded. Once I explained my plan, they calmed down and after a few photos I went to clean my face. Afterwards, my great buddy George Riddell cleaned the photo up with photoshop. Thank you George! You da man.

2009 – I don’t think many people understood this but I thought it was funny. It was a little forced, I admit, but it did generate a number of phone calls from friends asking WTF. The third panel above is the back of the card sharing my legal disclaimer. That may be the highlight (?)

2010 – I resurrected my father’s famous Chapin & Gore letter sweater and added the Bacardi bat logo. Chapin & Gore is a bourbon that my father favored. My mom made this letter sweater for him with chevrons on the sleeve indicating the years he “lettered” and a star for team captain. Not my best effort but I got dad’s sweater into the series and it’s the thought that counts, right?

2011 – I was preparing to move back to Omaha and was extremely fortunate to have a number of farewell parties and blowouts with many of my great friends I had acquired in Seattle. I had made a battery powered Christmas vest (portable version) that I wore to these farewell parties and this candid photo captured a moment. I had written the joke ahead of time and once I found this photo, it seemed appropriate. Thank you Seattle for the many great farewell parties.

2012 – I had 8 or 9 months to come up with this concept once I moved back to Nebraska in January. It came to me one day while driving a freeway bridge across the Platte river. The photo was taken at the top of an observation tower next to the Platte river by a complete stranger about a week later in November. It was a popular card that drove many, many emails and texts from recipients. My mother, glad to have me home, had this card sitting on her dresser for the remainder of her life.

2013 – Emily Reynolds Baker passed away suddenly in April 2013 and it was more than appropriate for me to honor my parents by resurrecting one of their most popular cards. Starting in 1953, Joe and Emily Baker sent customized Christmas cards each year to family and friends. They enjoyed a collaborative and creative connection as well as a wonderful sense of humor. Their collection of 48 Christmas cards reveals that connection and they inspired me to carry on their tradition. Here’s to anyone with parents and here’s to our ability to honor their memory.

2014 – I think this joke came from Letterman. Everyone can relate to large family reunions with in-laws and outlaws, some of whom make the day longer somehow. My brother Jay Baker makes his guest appearance while we were at a Thanksgiving brunch. We did have a very fun day, believe me.

2015 – I was very short on ideas and was running out of time. But I did have a Christmas tree and a bunch of those airplane liquor bottles. Why not? My neighbor Tom Ricceri did the honors behind the camera at the last minute. Thank you Tommy.

2016 – Increasingly troubled with the growing commercialization of Christmas, I had to push back a little bit. The manager at a Hobby Lobby gave me permission to stage this photo without any supervision, while they were open for business! This took about 30 minutes to rearrange and power up the letters with a large ziplock full of AAA batteries. Several shoppers paused long enough to look at me with suspicion before moving on.

2017 – This idea came to me on one of my daily walks, which by the way, provide clarity, perspective, and calmness. Highly recommended. Anyway, I had just published my book about my father Joe Baker, That’s Close Enough, and knew that was going to be my punchline. It took me about 20 minutes to “string up” my lights. Thanks to Tom Ricceri for taking the photo on top of a ladder in my front yard. I left my lights up like this for a few days just to force some questions from curious neighbors.

2018 – Another anniversary and another lack of ideas. Why not turn the joke back onto the recipients? This card had a reflective paper where the photo was supposed to be. The recipient would open it and see their own reflection inside. This prompted a slew of texts, calls, and emails from recipients. Great fun.

2019 – This idea came to me in August during one of my walks and while thinking about the dawn of a new decade. 2020 vision was an obvious punchline and it took me weeks to find stupid glasses that would suffice. The original version had a much longer introduction but as we all know, less is more. ‘nuf said. Cheers.

2020 – There was an infamous press conference where a certain someone suggested that disinfectant might be used to combat a global pandemic. I couldn’t resist. 

2021 – Mad Libs has always been a favorite of mine and this idea just fell into my lap. Decoding the paragraph leads to: Hopes for a stirring Christmas by all at.

2024 – I wanted a photo with xyz.