A look back at 25 years.

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 It all started for selfish reasons. We had just lost our son Adam to SIDs and we were missing him terribly. Not that they don't already, but we wanted people to take a look at and appreciate life. The method to deliver the message may have been a bit cheesy but it said what​ we wanted it to say. Image was shot by my brother Brad on his back porch. The shoot was a surprise to Karin who happened to be having a bad hair day. Clip art, press type, halftone photography...old fashioned. We wore shirts with wording on them so they would read backwards. How clever! 

 A bit more cheery of a message as the purpose of this year's card was twofold. The first, obviously, was to wish a Merry Christmas. Purpose number two was to announce to our family and friends that we were expecting another child. Who remembers hand-pressed Letraset type, paste-up ​with rubber cement and hand-drawn art like  toy soldiers with ​ink rapidographs? (For friends iin the industry) 

Spoof on the late 80's TV crime show.​ Another low budget photoshoot shot by neighbor Cindy Joyce in her living room. With a borrowed Santa suit, Santa was expertly played by Greg. Jake had a very hard time getting comfortable. He was terrified of Santa. Three people wore the hat and beard trying to get him to realize all was ok and to we were just having some Christmas fun. 

A fun way to show the family with our faces sliced into thirds. Our first card produced using a computer. Images shot in our living room and scanned on a flatbed scanner. Jake's nose was ​identical to Greg's. 

Keith is born!  A celebratory shot of a toothless Keith. "Gee if I could only have my two front teeth then I could wish you Merry Christmas!"
Existing photography was used. Teeth blacked out using Photoshop. Who hasn't done that in their life using a black marker on a photo? 

The first year of controversy. Controversy on two fronts. After concepting the idea derived from lyrics from "The Little Drummer Boy", I felt since everyone has one, why not use photos of our butts. What's the big deal? When I approached Karin about the idea...well, not sure I need to explain further. I drew them.
She was right. Usually is. Controversy number two; a family ​member felt this card lacked the
​respect the holiday deserved and wondered "Where's Jesus?" 

We step it up a bit. We are fortunate ​to benefit
​from a new print on demand process called Chromapress offered by Graphics Express. Photoshoot was in our kitchen against a white
sheet hung seamless, shot by Mark Moriarty.
Snow globe was shot by one of the Boston Herald ​staff photographers. Images were combined in Photoshop. Extensive process as the existing contents of the globe had to be removed, the family placed in and all that confetti silhouetted. Painstaking process. 

Our first venture into an unconventional "card". Several outside vendors were used for the puzzle cutting and to purchase the cylinders. Outside of the cylinder was labeled with an apology for "not getting it all together". Recipients had to assemble the puzzle to figure out who the card was from. The post office drilled home the fact that spreading holiday cheer comes with a price. Expensive to mail. 

We took a bit of a more advertising approach with our writing style with "The sap gets stuck on the bottom". Oversized card at 10" x 37". For the first time, we shopped for wardrobe. Photoshoot remained low budget as it was shot by us in our living room against a white sheet hung seamless. Stock photography used for ornaments. All was assembled in Photoshop. Execution a bit lacking but overall we were pleased with the result. 

An idea that had a few people scratching their heads on how it was done and why. Single photo was shot in Keith's bedroom. Eyes glowing effect was created in Photoshop. For the second time there were friends and family, who questioned whether this card treated the season with ​the respect it deserved. 

The Ford Edsel. New Coke. Peas on earth.
Got the idea late, grabbed poor stock photography pea pod image, and put it
together in Photoshop. Rip-off of a beautiful Christmas hymn. Poorly shot. Poorly executed. ​Low point 

Tough shoot done in Jake's bedroom. The kids had to look deadly serious immediately after they were sprayed with water to get the glistening beads. Difficult for them to keep
​a straight face. They all did well. Unsure if this is a bounce back but at least it was different. Blue Christmas had several meanings to us that year. We were not hosting Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, which made us blue. Due to the Boston Herald's involvement with
Blue Man Group, we had seen it a bunch of times that year and loved it, and the song "I'm Blue Abodee Adobdah" was a hit. Not really valid reasons but these were the thoughts
​behind our inspiration. Card was met with many raised eyebrows and more than a few WTF's. 

We're baaaaaack. Finally a reasonably good idea. Baseball cards with highlights from the year on  the back of each card. Packaged with stale gum, just like the old days 

Christmas lyrics as a driving theme, we decided on a paper ​airplane to support our "In the air there's a feeling of Christmas". Photoshoot/photography by Diane Clement. Underside of the wings
had everyone's Christmas list displayed. Much hand cutting was needed. ​Little known facts that people may not have noticed: ​Polly (like all dogs would) had her head hanging out the window. Plane # GBA0122189 was for God Bless Adam and his birth date. The white lettering on the tires read HAVE A GOODYEAR! GET IT? PRETTY CLEVER, HUH? All the Mingels had pointy elf ears.If you unfolded the plane it read "I can't believe you wrecked my plane".

The idea started with us writing a satyrical year in review letter about the kids accomplishments. Andrea wanted to do a fun book. We merged the two. Twenty page fun book with coloring pages, word searches, word jumble pages, etc. all holiday and/or "Year in review" themed. The book also included a contest which no one entered. All photography and illustration handled in-house.

Eye Spy with Lamp Chop cover asking "Do you see what I see?" Extensive search for a Lamb Chop doll ended with success on eBay. Michelle Joyce shot the first of many cards for us. Seven hour shoot was before Thanksgiving. Finding a real tree for the set was tough but ​not insurmountable, Well designed (IMO). Expertly shot. Well executed. The new standard for excellence has arrived. Little known fact: the license plate on the Barbie VW read Bessie in honor of Karin's mom Joan who drove a car named Bessie when they were kids 

We wanted to figure out how to take regular photography and make it 3D (well, I wanted to). We decided what's better than 3D movies? Let's do a movie poster. Michelle Joyce photoshoot. Poster was an interesting project it first had to be composed as a single image using multiple images. It then had to be broken apart piece by piece, placed on separate layers with each adjusted individually to get the
3D effect to work and give ​the illusion of depth. 3D glasses used to view the card were ​booger-glued to Keith's face on the cover 

Nahwee Kithmith. A Christmas Story inspired card with Andrea's rubber band tongue stuck to a light pole. Cover read "Andrea quickly learned that Jake had lied. The light posts at the North Pole were not real candy canes". Another great Michelle Joyce photoshoot. After the shoot Karin changes Justin Joyce's name to Jason. Hand assembled after many different types of glue ​and different rubber bands were tried. ​Many hours of research. 

Lighten up! We thought it would be cool to poke fun at the stress of the holiday season. Michelle Joyce photoshoot. Lights were shot backlit on a light table. Kids were shot individually to replace the filament of each lightbulb. A really involved Photoshop project where each filament was replaced by a Mingels child in a different pose. There were no duplicates. Many people who got the card did not notice.  We sense the older kids interest in doing Christmas cards starting to wane. 

The slump starts. Without anything better, we start thinking about Santa and how he see kids when they're sleeping and knows when they're awake. ​Doesn't that type of behavior get you locked up? Another Michelle Joyce photoshoot so at least the photography was top notch. All props, including rug and living room chair brought from home for the shoot. 

The year without a Santa Claus idea, or any other idea for that matter. Although Andrea submitted idea after idea, we ended up going with the idea being "Hey, this year we have no idea". A poem was written with the promise
​for a better year next year, closing with ​"we owe you one". 

A great collaborative idea led by new Assistant Creative Director, Andrea for a bounce back. A venture into packaging with our introduction of Candy Cane Crunch. The new breakfast treat (Inspired by the movie "Elf"). Michelle Joyce photography. Shoot was tons of fun. We NEVER thought we would get two teenage boys to wear elf costumes. They were great sports for the cause. Boxes were hand cut, hand scored, hand folded and hand glued. A great deal of work by all involved. Expensive to mail and many boxes were delivered crushed, much to our dismay. 

With two kids away at college, the challenge became how do we involve them without being able to shoot them. We came up with a relatively good idea. A matching card game loosely based on Uno®. We were able to do an old fashioned "dining room" shoot as expert photography was not necessary for obvious reasons. Boxes were hand cut and the entire project was hand collated and assembled.  

Both boys away at school again. We felt the need, however, to show off our family. Two of Andrea's friends stepped up to fill in for Jake and Keith. I believe one of Michelle Joyce's favorite shoots. We "made" a biker dwarf out of a normal sized person. A tough task that should be a Photoshop tutorial. Details most do not notice; tattoo on the biker's arm,  her chain wallet, pseudo Jake is more interested in ​his phone. Little touches thatChief Creative Officer ​Karin adds that set us a notch above.
​One of Greg's favorites.