The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 10 - Holiday Hair Art: The Sentimental (and Slightly Creepy) Victorian Gift

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast and

0:04 Speaker 1: Day ten of our Victorian Christmas countdown the twenty five

0:08 Speaker 1: Strangest Days of Christmas. Victorian Christmas cards were famously quirky,

0:14 Speaker 1: but few themes were stranger than the anthropomorphic vegetable holiday greeting.

0:19 Speaker 1: Imagine opening your mail and finding a carrot wearing a

0:23 Speaker 1: top hat, a beat root smiling politely, a turnip holding mistletoe,

0:27 Speaker 1: often accompanied by greetings like may your holidays be ever

0:31 Speaker 1: so jolly courtesy of vegetable Man. There's no deep symbolism here.

0:37 Speaker 1: Victorians simply enjoyed surreal whimsy. Several of these cards survive

0:41 Speaker 1: in museum archives, including one particularly charming cabbage couple waltzing

0:46 Speaker 1: under a banner reading a merry dance to you This Christmas.

0:51 Speaker 1: Victorians loved sentiment, but they also deeply cherished the delightfully strange.

0:57 Speaker 2: Today's sponsor is Vegetpal's collectible Holiday cards. Start your own

1:01 Speaker 2: tradition of sending turnips in formal attire to friends and

1:04 Speaker 2: co workers. Veggie Pals guaranteed to confuse someone you love.

1:10 Speaker 1: Tomorrow, we step under the mistletoe, where things get socially

1:14 Speaker 1: complicated