Hanna-Barbera Christmas Cards

 December has finally come, and with it, Christmas time arrives as well. To start the month off, here's a collection of several Christmas cards issued by Hanna-Barbera over the years. Starting us off is this holiday gift cel from 1965, showing some of the early Hanna-Barbera characters wishing us a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Jumping forward to the seventies, here are two more cards, although I'm unsure as to when they were issued. The first one was commissioned by Hanna-Barbera themselves, and features some of the famous (and not so famous) characters to come out of their output in that era. The second was done as a promotional piece for Kings Island, which for many years was the closest thing to a genuine Hanna-Barbera land. It's also not entirely representative of what the piece looked like, as it's more akin to a rough concept than the finished product. 

Next up is a Christmas card from 1981, showing the disembodied heads of Hanna-Barbera protagonists adorning a Christmas tree. Just what every kid wants to see on Christmas! That being said, I must admit that the HB swirling star logo taking the usual spot of the Christmas star is a really nice touch.

I'm not sure if this next one was actually official art commissioned by the studio or not, but I've never seen it before, so I thought I'd share it here. This piece I'm guessing was done sometime in the 90's (or perhaps for WB in the 2000s?), and shows a couple of classic characters celebrating the holidays. This one was also created by legendary Hanna-Barbera artist Iwao Takamoto, whose signature adorns the piece. One of my personal favorites of this collection, though I wish I knew more about where it came from.

That's it for today, but there will be plenty of other holiday surprises in store this month! Hanna-Barbera and the holidays go hand in hand, so I'll have a lot to cover and discuss for the merriest of seasons!