Muley's 2020 Christmas Card

Having missed a few years' worth of holiday cards, I felt it was time to get a new one out, and since the Nativity and the Drummer Boy scene is one of my favorite scenes to play with:

Below, you can see the back of the card shared with folks, but further down are some more images showing the initial sketches, and more.

Of course looking 2000-ish years ago, there were certain instruments people played.  Let's look at the instruments that were played by the people, and who plays what on this card and why.

The Nativity scene has normally been Muley the Mule, Buford the Dog, and Roy Duck participating with the Little Drummer Boy, whose role has been played by Roy Duck.  Missy Muley has made her debut on this card, performing a frame-drum (not unlike a tambourine). 

Buford the Dog has shown up performing the reed-pipe, a woodwind instrument.  Buford is normally found on saxophone, so this works for him.

Muley the Mule is seen holding a lute, a stringed instrument - the instrument of choice by this mule.

The quietest of our team, Roy Duck, is drawn to drums, and so takes on the role as the Little Drummer Duck.  Also, drums speak for themselves.

The background is a photograph of a Nativity set, and the far background is a photograph found online of Jerusalem.

Finally, special thanks to DaMarco Randle, assistant to Roy Duck, for the great joke which we used in the publication.  As you'll see, the original idea was much different.

The original sketch was doodled on a napkin.  As you can see, it was only going to include Buford and Muley with the Little Drummer Boy.  But, that was soon to change.

As you can see here, the design was to include all the humans, but suddenly, it needed to be Muley and his friends, so the Little Drummer Boy was removed, and replaced by Roy Duck.

The image seemed dismayed until DaMarco suggested an alternate joke, which put me again on a search for the date we used: 4 BC.  While there are no specific documents about the actual birth of Jesus Christ, a majority of sources said September, some said 6 BC or even 7 BC; but, the majority settled on 4 BC, so I stuck with that - and chose to not include a date since it's now December.

So, there you have it, a story behind the story of the card.