Word just came through that the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation placed an order of holiday cards. The card is on striking black matte stock, and the design is of an embossed Christmas tree composed of gleaming silver and blue foil starbursts.  A gold foiled “Season’s Greetings” type finishes off this vivid and dazzling holiday card.

2008 Holiday card from the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation

The Walter and Connie Payton Foundation, named for and founded by the late legendary Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton and his family, helps abused, neglected, and underprivileged children in Illinois through a variety of activities. Around the holidays, the foundation runs an annual toy and fundraising drive to provide financial assistance and gifts to over 20,000 children. It also hosts an annual “Sweetness Run” (“Sweetness” was Payton’s nickname as a player, both for his on-field ability and off-field demeanor) to raise funds for the cause. In the Fall, the foundation gathers and donates school supplies; this year they provided over 500 filled backpacks to needy students.

Payton retired from the NFL in 1987 as the all-time leading rusher and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1993. He had only missed one game during his 13-year career with the Bears, and he helped lead the Bears to their only Super Bowl victory in 1985. Payton succumbed to cancer in 1999.  During his life, he exhibited a generous and altruistic spirit, and it is in his name and spirit that his family continues his charity work through the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation.

2007 Christmas cards from Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, and family

Last year, Katie Holmes decided to design her own Christmas cards for her family.  Adorned in brown, cream and burgundy and embellished with a big bow knotted around the front, the holiday card displayed greetings of “Happy holidays and best wishes for a joyous new year.”  Signing her name as “Kate,” the name called by her husband, and not “Katie,” the card also included Tom Cruise’s adopted children, Bella and Connor.

With Katie currently in the Broadway rendition of All My Sons, one wonders if shewill have time to be designing a Christmas card for her family this year. The play, written by Arthur Miller in 1947, was inspired by a true story of a businessman who knowingly and tragically sells defective airplane parts to the US government during World War II. Katie plays the role of Ann, a woman who visits the family of her former lover and a missing pilot. The play previewed in September amidst anti-scientology protestors demonstrating against the new-age religion.

Creativity may be an inherent part of Katie’s nature. Not only did she design her own Christmas cards, she also co-designed the white pantsuit that she wore to an after party on the opening night of All My Sons. This was her second attempt at creating one of her own clothing designs. Will this be true of the family’s Christmas card this year?