Christmas is closer than you think...

It's official, Christmas is only a week away. 

Let's begin with the bible verse.

Luke 2:10

But the Angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

Christmas is often associated with the colors red and green.  The theory of these two colors representing Christmas are because of the reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place.  

It is because of Jesus Christ that we "deck the halls" with red and green.

The green represents Christ's eternal life just as the evergreen trees remain green all winter long.  The red represents his blood shed during the crucifixion

Now I will show off the green and red cards:

Today I am looking at the 2018 Bowman Holiday release.

I think I have shown them before, but if you are unfamilar with the set here is some quick information about it.

The 2018 Bowman Holiday cards were a hobby shop exclusive release.  Begining on November 16, 2018 collectors could go to their local shop and purchase $10 of Topps products to receive 1 pack of 2018 Bowman Holiday.  Not all hobby shops participated and those that did likely had extra packs left over that they ripped after the holiday to sell as singles.

Each pack contained 3 cards and a chance to get a Fall/Winter parallel inside.

There were Turkey (/35), Green Festive (/99), White Snow (/50), Red Festive (/10), and Gold Festive (1/1) parallels for the 100 card base set.  

Above you can see the Red and Green parallels respectively. 

The backs of the cards were numbered TH (Topps Holiday) along with the Player's initials.  

Similar to many other Bowman "flagship" releases there are resumes, skills, and up close snapshots of the player.  

The resume talks about how the player came to the team, awards, and personal accomplishments.

The skills is basically a scouting report.

The up close talks more about the personal side of the athlete.

Here are the cards perched in the tree.

Have you ever been fortunate to get these types of hobby shop exclusive card promotions at your local card shop?  

The Holiday Season Is Upon Us

I am preparing for another wave of cards to go out to people this weekend or early next week.  In addition to my Secret Santa package officially being sent out I have 3 other packages en route to new homes for the holidays.


This pair of 2018 Holiday Bowman cards are meant to represent ugly sweaters or wrapping paper, I'm really not sure.

I actually like parallels like this for holidays.  The green is numbered to 99 and the red is numbered to only 10 copies.

This pair joins the turkey parallel I showed off for Thanksgiving which was numbered to 35 copies.

I still need the /50 snowflake parallel.

2018 Bowman Holiday Box had some fun(ky) parallels to chase.

I hope Topps keeps doing cool parallels like this to chase for years to come.  They're fun and the hobby should have some holiday fun too....

The next two weeks will have specific themes to them.  I am really excited about the week leading into Christmas week. It will be the most fun I've had creating posts since my yearly Save Second Base events.