This card celebrates the volunteer policemen known as special constables who might be on duty at Christmas. Just in case the truncheon is not enough to remind you of the police, the word ‘Special’ is used five times on the card and underlined every time.
As an instrument of violence that is used to maintain order, a truncheon is a difficult object to make festive. Yet it’s not the most sinister element on this card.
Who is the man on the bottom right? Why is he watching the woman scrubbing the steps to a basement? Why are neither of them worried about the large lumps of snow that cover them?