A satirical holiday cards design from Abercrombie & Fitch, Subtlety reminding their recipients that they just overpaid

This satirical holiday cards design for Abercrombie & Fitch is a simple, somewhat rustic design with your typical “Happy Holidays” sentiment and the A&F moose logo pictured on the front. It is the “PS: You Just Overpaid!” statement that truly makes this card enjoyable to receive. Talk about truth in advertising! How refreshing during the holiday season that a retailer admits to ripping off its customers. It would be even more enjoyable (and in the A&F tradition), if several male and female semi-nude or scantily clad models also adorned the card. For a company that sells clothing, they show very little of it on their advertising models!

Abercrombie & Fitch is a store that makes you feel good when you walk inside its doors. The merchandise is all properly folded and nothing is out of place. The mannequins are all nicely dressed in such coordinated fashions that you can’t help but want to buy every outfit they display. You walk through the store grabbing at everything to be tried on in the fitting room. You emerge with an armload of outfits and head to the cashier. It is then that the wonderful feeling you had when you walked through the door suddenly disappears. How much did I just spend? A small fortune! But, you take out your credit card, grab your bag and head out the door. Merry Christmas! I just lost my mind spending a small fortune on three t-shirts and a pair of shorts.

However in defense of A&F, they did help my son find his one and only girlfriend and consequently his current wife. Before I shipped him off to college, I opened an Abercrombie credit card and proceeded to spend way too much money on a complete preppie wardrobe for him. Over the course of the summer, he had stopped dressing like a skateboarding punk and cleaned up nicely in the process. I was thrilled with my new clean-cut version of a son, and even more thrilled that because of Abercrombie & Fitch, he is now someone else’s problem! Thank you A&F for over charging me. In this case, it was well worth it!

Holiday cards designed by Michelle Kwan for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundations

Two stars overlapping, one effortlessly flowing on top of the other. “Season’s Greetings” sweeping underneath them. Inside each star, a flourish of color. Behind the stars, a stark white background. Looking at all of these holiday cards elements, you might almost think that you are watching the marks left on the ice from the blades of an ice skater. There is a gracefulness to the lines making up the illustration above which might make you think of watching a poised world champion figure skater. It’s not that surprising then to discover that Michelle Kwan, winner of five World Championships, nine U.S. championships, and two Olympic Medals designed these holiday cards.

When you see the list of medals that she has won and the titles she has held, it is hard to believe that Michelle Kwan is not yet even 30! And still, with the consistency of her skating and her artistry on the ice, she is thought to be one of the greatest figure skaters of all time. Michelle began skating at age five, following both her brother and sister onto the ice. When she was eight years old, she began training in earnest and at age 12 began to compete at the senior level.

Despite her spectacular talent, the dream that eludes her is winning an Olympic Gold. She was an alternate on the 1994 team, but did not compete. A favorite to win gold in 1998, she placed second and earned a silver medal. Again, a favorite to place first at the 2002 games, she only won the bronze. In 2005 she injured both her hip and abdomen and withdrew from competitions which would enable her to compete in the 2006 Winter Games. She petitioned for a medical waiver to enable her to be placed on the team despite these injuries and was approved. During her first practice session in Turin, however, she suffered another injury forcing her to withdraw from the games. At the time, she did not indicate a desire to retire. Should she compete in 2010, she will be 29 years old. In October 2007, Michelle indicated that she would make a decision in 2009 about whether or not to compete in 2010. But until then, at least she can continue designing graceful holiday cards.

Holiday cards sent out by new mom and dad, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, showing off Bronx Mowgli

The new generation of celebrity babies certainly has its work cut out for it as the kids are literally growing up in front of the cameras! With the media scrambling for the all-important first look, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz decided to scoop the paparazzi when they shared the first photo of their new son, Bronx Mowgli, on their 2008 Christmas cards cards.

The digital photo Christmas cards showed up all over the internet in time for the holidays, showing new mom Ashlee looking adoringly at her son, with proud papa Pete planting a kiss on the baby’s forehead. The newlyweds, who had a shotgun wedding in May, listed some of their favorite charities at the bottom of the card in the hopes that their friends – and perhaps, their fans – would take the spirit of giving upon themselves by supporting some worthwhile organizations.

The Simpson-Wentz duo is not the first of celebrities to give their offspring a unique name. Wentz explained to Ryan Seacrest that he and Ashlee bonded over “The Jungle Book” and that Mowgli, the young boy in the story, is a “cool name”. While it may appear that Bronx is just a case of naming after a location – like David and Victoria Beckham did with their son Brooklyn – the new parents are not sharing the reasoning behind the name. And with a peer group that includes Apple Martin, Kal-El Cage, Pilot Inspektor Lee, Moxie Crimefighter Jillette, and Tu Morrow, perhaps the reasoning behind the name is better left a mystery!

2008 holiday cards sent by James Lipton, host of Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio," and his wife, Kedakai

I am always curious to see what different styles of holiday cards are sent out by celebrities. This past Christmas season, I took a little time to peruse the Internet to see what I could find in the way of celebrity Christmas cards. One of the more interesting holiday cards I found was one sent out by James Lipton of Inside the Actor’s Studio and his wife, Kedakai.

The beautiful white holiday card depicts a Santa Claus figure inside what appears to be a crest with the card’s title, “An Exaltation of Christmas” above, all in gold. The design is a reflection of his fun word book, An Exaltation of Larks, which brings together veneries, that is, double meaning descriptions of things that can be grouped together. Sample Christmas-related veneries, such as “a rooftop of reindeer” or “a descent of relatives,” border the front of his holiday card.

It is not surprising to me that Lipton’s book has to do with words and phrases because on his show he has always struck me as someone who is not only intelligent but also a master of the English language. The fact that he has published a book that is about wording and language I find to be quite interesting but certainly not surprising. I hope next year I’ll come across the next rendition of his venery-filled holiday cards.