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Poignant official Hallmark card issued during the 1963 holiday season, featuring an image of a nativity scene on the front, measuring 9 x 6.5 open, signed inside in bold ink as president, "John Kennedy," and in blue ballpoint as first lady, "Jacqueline Kennedy." The image on the front is identified as "Creche in East Room, The White House," and a gilt-embossed presidential seal and engraved holiday greeting appear above the signatures, reading: "With our wishes for a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year." In very fine condition.
According to Mary Evans Seeley's Season's Greetings from the White House, Hallmark produced approximately 2,200 cards bearing this sentiment. Of these, 1,500 carried facsimile signatures of the president and first lady, and 700 were ordered without signatures. In a letter dated November 14, 1963, Hallmark vice president Jeannette Lee informed Maj. Gen. Chester V. Clifton, Jr., Kennedy's military aide, that 500 of the unsigned cards would be shipped directly to the White House to await the president's return from Florida. Kennedy had observed a Polaris missile test launch at Cape Canaveral on November 16, spent the weekend in Palm Beach, and spoke in Tampa and Miami on November 18 before returning to Washington around midnight.
This example, from the unsigned printing and hand-signed by both Kennedys, must have been signed between the president's return and his departure for Texas on November 21, in the final days before the trip to Dallas. President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, and the Christmas wishes he had signed days earlier became among his final autographs.
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