The dr bob annual xmas card [xmas = "christmas" in abbreviated American english] officially begin with almost mass distribution in 1978, missing only 1991 due to our wedding thank you note conflict. Starting with a small distribution in the early years and growing, it was not until the late 80's that the distribution list surpassed the 400 mark, thanks to TeX computer label generation and the expansion of the production team to include ms_ani. With periodic culling of addresses, distribution was limited to 600 some recipients in some two dozen countries for some decades.
This annual junk mailing serves the purpose of maintaining some link to many people around the world who have entered our lives in one way or another.
As the card has evolved, the humorous theme of each annual card often reflects some issue or aspect of the year preceding the holiday season, typically concerning an underlying social, political, or environmental topic and often involving some subtle or not so subtle satirical/ironical humor that is frequently not understood by the diverse target audience throughout the world. Still the sincerely felt message of caring, testified to by the enormous work involved in production and distribution, and transmitted through the whimsical characters [thumbnail gallery!] who spring from the imagination to carry this message, seems to get delivered. Or at the very least a few smiles. One thing this world could use more of.
But all things evolve and paper edition production stopped in 2023 thanks to the Gaza genocide, then e-delivery began in 2024. Future still to be determined.
| year | concept | color paper |
| 1976 | mole | white |
| 1977 | Squawk! | white |
| 1978 | Mouse/Moose/Killer Bee/Dog | blue |
| 1979 | Many Santas | white |
| 1980 | Sneaking Santa | white |
| 1981 | Snow Mice | blue |
| 1982 | Escape to Rio | pale blue |
| 1983 | Strike at North Pole | white |
| 1984 | Search for Imagination | yellow |
| 1985 | Corporate Takeover | pink |
| 1986 | Flight Security | green |
| 1987 | Give | yellow |
| 1988 | Big Bang Deficit | green |
| 1989 | Global Warming | yellow/orange |
| 1990 | War Toys | fluor. pink |
| 1991 | [Wedding Thankyou Notes] | fluor. red/pink |
| 1992 | Love | fluor. pink |
| 1993 | Moving | fluor. green |
| 1994 | Curse of the drbobmobile | white [mistake] |
| 1995 | Mouse | fluor. lime yellow |
| 1996 | Family values | blue |
| 1997 | Pigs | salmon |
| 1998 | Oops | rocket red |
| 1999 | Y2K | goldenrod |
| 2000 | Campaign 2000 | goldenrod |
| 2001 | no fly | fluor. green |
| 2002 | surveillance | yellow |
| 2003 | bad santa | lava |
| 2004 | low carb christmas | blue |
| 2005 | evolution | yellow |
| 2006 | truth | lavender |
| 2007 | on trial | ultra lemon |
| 2008 | together? | ivory |
| 2009 | Italian TV | orchid |
| 2010 | ScroogeMcDuck | lime green |
| 2011 | Occupy | canary yellow |
| 2012 | Bad Santa, Worse Santa | electric fuschia |
| 2013 | SantaCare | lavender |
| 2014 | unwanted visitors? | canary yellow |
| 2015 | refugees | ivory |
| 2016 | the return of bad santa | canary yellow |
| 2017 | fake news? | lemon yellow |
| 2018 | caravan | goldenrod |
| 2019 | impeached? | untra lemon |
| 2020 | masks | untra yellow |
| 2021 | "o" | ivory |
| 2022 | heat | electric fuschia |
| 2023 | Gaza | --- |
| 2024 | deja vu | --- |
All cards are designed for double-sided USA size paper [8.5x11inch] photocopies, folded in a "Z-fold" into thirds, with the top third folded over the lower two thirds so that when the card is closed, one sees first the opening salvo (the top third of the first side), then opens the card to see the lower two thirds of the first page. [The web versions don't print out page by page because of margins, screen-versus-paper graphic resolution conflicts, etc., while PDF versions are for USA paper letter size dimensions: 8.5"x11".]
This annual project derailed with the tragedy that exploded in Gaza in 2023 and no upbeat card seemed appropriate, but resumed with the return of Bad Santa in 2024 with the transition to e-delivery through WhatsApp, Messenger, and SMS messaging to those for which some e-delivery connection had already been made, inevitably missing some recipients from the dr bob address database, and harder to organize with multiple platforms compared to a single TeX generated address label printing. A brief response e-card to reply to incoming wishes during xmas23 was created.
