A Guide to Christmas-Themed Trading Cards: From Santa to Clark Griswold – Blogging Sole

Sports stars, celebrities and even cryptocurrency everyone has rookie cards…but Santa, yes? This is a question you might ask yourself after consuming a little too much nutmeg. And since the gift-giving season is officially here, I want to spread a little holiday cheer by highlighting Christmas-themed trading cards, which are a bigger niche than you might think.

So let’s delve into a fun corner of the trading card world, dominated by the GOAT of gifts himself: Old St. Nick.

A Brief History of Santa Trading Cards

There is no concrete story on the origin of Santa trading cards, but some of the earliest examples in the United States date back to the late 1800s. The Woolson Spice Company, based in Ohio, has created several artistic Christmas trading cards featuring Santa Claus sitting around the tree with children or on his sleigh. Woolson Spice used the backs of the cards to advertise its products, such as Lion Coffee.

Technically, no 19th century card is considered the “real” Santa rookie card among the collecting community, but one of his best known from the era can be found in the 1890 Duke Holidays set The famous tobacco company produced a 50-card deck including three Christmas cards, but only the American variant included Santa Claus. According to the Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) population report, the company has authenticated fewer than 15 copies. An example map can even be found in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It’s fascinating to see the evolution of Santa Claus from how he was portrayed then to today. Many early illustrated cards showed a thinner version, sometimes dressed with a Green Or brown suit. It was Coca-Cola advertisements in the early 1930s, which cemented the image of Santa Claus we have today (although it was political cartoonist Thomas Nast who originating in the 1860s). And yes, there are collectible cards with these old Coca-Cola advertisements which were made in the 1990s.

In the late 1980s, the sports card industry exploded in popularity and began producing more and more sets. One of the first Santa cards that caught the attention of modern collectors is the iconic Pro Set 1989 Football Card. The promotional card was given to owners and card resellers during the holidays and could not be removed from packs, increasing demand.

The front of the card lists Santa as “player-coach” and depicts him wearing a baseball cap bearing his own name and a red satin jacket emblazoned with the Santa logo. NFL logo. Inexplicably, he’s holding the same trading card he’s on, creating a mind-blowing loop of card receiving. Behind Santa, through a snow-covered window are two Pro Set leaders dressed as elves (Leaf remade this card in 2021 with a selection of notable figures ranging from Donald Trump to Pelé, which can make it difficult to find the most valuable original). The back of the card features Santa’s vital information and a reconnaissance report.

It was such a success that Pro Set began putting out Santa cards in its entirety from 1990. All of these cards were printed in much higher quantities, making them easy to obtain today, but the 1989 card is still highly sought after, with copies graded PSA 10 “precious mint” selling between $500 and $750.

As the sports card industry continued to innovate in the 1990s, it opened up new opportunities to celebrate the holidays with autograph and memorabilia cards. One of the first autographed Santa cards can be found in Pro Line Portraits from 1991 with the rarest version limited to 200 copies.

In 1998, Upper Deck produced an oversized model Kris Kringle promotional card featuring a velvety red piece of “holiday jersey” exclusive to members of the company’s collectors club. The card can be found on eBay for around $20.

In 2007, Topps created the most comprehensive offering to date, with a Santa Claus Holiday Set which contains 18 cards, all featuring versions of Santa on Topps’ most popular designs of all time, including a Kris Kringle relic card, an autograph card, and a rookie card that pays homage to the famous Topps card by Mickey Mantle from 1952. Instead of being a “Certified Topps Autograph,” the signed card in this set is a “Topps Santafied Autograph,” with the back of the card insisting: “Santa Claus himself signed this card with the pen he uses to make his list of everyone. naughty and nice kids around the world. The back of the relic card, bearing a piece of Santa’s suit, reads: “Topps acquired this suit from Santa himself, who requested that it be stretched as far and wide as possible so that everyone could have a piece of their holiday spirit to cherish and return to whenever they want.

In recent years, Topps has produced more autograph cards and Santa relics for its holiday baseball sets (more on that in a minute), but the reveals have become significantly less fanciful. “The relic on this card doesn’t come from anything at all,” the back of the card says. a 2019 offer.

Over the past decade, the hobby’s annual holiday box set releases have produced more Santa trading cards than ever before. In the newest releases of the Topps Holiday set, collectors can pull rare chase cards of other classic North Pole characters such as Mrs. Claus, Frosty the Snowman, the Gingerbread Man, and even more.

Holiday Themed Sports Sets

The sports card industry has a few holiday-themed sets that bring a seasonal feel to the collection with unique player-worn Christmas sweater cards and very short festive print variations.

The main baseball card release centered around this festive time of year is Topps Holiday. First produced in 2016, the set features holiday-inspired designs MLBRookies and Stars where you can find hidden elves, snowflakes and Christmas lights on maps. Collectors can collect autograph cards, player-worn Christmas hat relics, and the aforementioned rare Santa relic/auto cards. Topps Holiday sets are retail exclusives that can be found online and in stores like Target And Walmart.

A few years after Topps Holiday’s first album, Panini, which produced NFL and NBA licensed trading cards, began offering holiday-themed Hoops Basketball and Donruss Football sets which also became popular with collectors. In 2022, Donruss Football, Panini released a visually stunning game. Santa Claus downtown insert. The ultra-rare hit (there is traditionally only one Downtown insert for every two hundred packs) is still in high demand, with 10 copies of the PSA selling for over $1,500. The unique Clearly Donruss Holo parallel to this card sold for $3,234.71 in June of this year — a record for a Santa card, according to CardLadder’s database, which tracks card sales across major online markets.

I would consider these products to be more collector-oriented, with a lower dollar value on average than many other sets, but they offer plenty of chase cards and autograph relics from top rookies and stars that can still fetch hundreds of dollars. PSA 10 Topps Holiday base rookie cards of superstars like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani sell for north of $100.

Classic Holiday Movie Trading Cards

One of my favorite holiday traditions is sitting down with a glass of eggnog and watching Christmas movies – a genre that is also making its way into trading cards. This year, actor Chevy Chase released a film “Christmas Vacation” 35th Anniversary Box which offers signed cards from the Griswold family and personally used Chevy Chase relic cards. The limited edition of 300 boxes sold out quickly, but a few were sold. I got on eBay.

Cryptozoic Entertainment and Marquee Trading Cards recently published a similar article together based on the beloved holiday film “A Christmas Story” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film’s release. Collectors have the opportunity to collect cast-signed single and double autograph cards, hand-drawn sketch cards, and serially numbered chase cards. Sealed boxes are available on eBay for about $130 and a 1/1 autograph card of Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) inscribed “I want a Red Ryder!” » has already been removed from a package and sold for a penny under $1,000.

Billingsley too signed cards for Leafsome with an inscription “Oh fudge” that are sold for $99 each – exactly what someone might say after their loved ones find out they spent $99 on a card autographed by Ralphie.

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(Top photo: Stephen Pond/Getty Images)