Merry Christmas
Mr. Matos and Ms. Cestnik
It’s not Christmastime at Nate and Jenny’s until a childish buffoon shows up to spread some holiday cheer
(and a little postal humour)
Imagine the scene: a middle age Englishman celebrates the holiday tradition of sending Christmas Cards. Only, he’s sending them to himself (and we presume only himself).
For nearly 30 years The Merry Mishaps of Mr. Bean has been one of the first shows both Nate and Jenny watch to kick off the holiday season. They’ve chuckled at the same dumb jokes and made the same silly faces together as their childhood tradition became a shared one. For the past 14 years they’ve pondered the question - what are the cards Mr. Bean effortlessly slides through his own mail each year? And how could they get their hands on one?
But as it turns out, as easy as it was for him, it wasn’t for Nate and Jenny…
Each year, as we discuss what we want to do for our annual Christmas Card, we’ve always returned to The Bean Card as it has come to be known. We’d use a screenshot, search eBay and the deep corners of the internet looking for early 1990s British Christmas cards. To no one’s surprise, they didn’t exist - but the painting certainly must have.
Shifting approach, we started investigating the artwork instead of the card. After nearly a decade of looking we uncovered it in December of 2023. The painting is from John Charles Maggs, titled ‘Royal Mail Coach in Winter Passing the George Inn’.
Maggs was born in London, England, in 1819, and was known for his paintings of famous coaching inns, metropolitan inns, and historical scenes like Newmarket Races and The News of Waterloo. His work, spanning two centuries, gained popularity for its vivid portrayal of the 'romantic past.'
With the artist and painting title in hand, we restarted the search for cards but still weren’t able to find them. Clearly, they had all been scooped up in the Mr. Bean Christmas Fever that swept 1990s Britain.
So, like any good Nate and Jenny Christmas card, we made our own. Inside and out.
With a 400 pixel wide image of the painting now saved to our computers, we used new technologies to upscale it and re-apply textures to give it the finished look from the show. A simple greeting was placed inside. The back of the card was littered with clues that may have helped you figure out some of this backstory.
The Clues
The cards said they were printed in the U.K. despite actually being printed in the good ‘ol USA.
The barcode format is what was used in Britain at the time.
The barcode itself is MB29 1292, for Mr. Bean, 29th December 1992 - the date the episode first aired.
The Card’s part number, JCMRMCIWPTGI is the painting’s full title and artist, John Charles Maggs Royal Mail Coach in Winter Passing the George Inn.
Okay. Maybe a little subtle.
But, we assumed, those siblings and cousins who watched the show with us each year, or any closet Bean fans on our card list, would surely start to get the hint when multiple cards of the same design addressed to the “Mr.” or “Ms.” of the house in scribbled penmanship started showing up.
Six cards to be precise. Why? In the show that’s how many are strung up on a white string across his living room. All with the same few lines of text inside, and no signature. He had other things to do with his time like shop for his lady, Irma.
Now that you know the holiday story, and understand the years we’ve been dreaming this one up, we hope you’ll revel in the holiday decoration that finally sits in your mail pile.
The string provided on Day 1 is for you to hang up your collection of semi-authentic British holiday greetings in your own living room for all to enjoy for decades to come.
(And for those of you who were panicked, stressed, or worried about the sudden uptick in anonymous, weird mail, we are truly sorry. The rest of the ideas on the Nate and Jenny Christmas Card brainstorm list are not nearly as spooky).
So as you head into the busiest few weeks of the year, be sure to take a little time for yourself. Open up a box of your favorite chocolates or maybe dive into some turkey head first. Then sit back, relax and enjoy one of Nate and Jenny’s favorite holiday shows. Don’t forget your Teddy.
Boom
Mr. Bean Christmas Card Pack
Mr. Bean Christmas Card Pack
Did you get weirded out, think your cards were a crypto scam, and steal a tree from the town square in panic? Grab another set here (because as it turns out, when you have to send 300 Christmas cards, it’s cheaper to order 1,000).
Footnote:
Props to Nate for learning Mr. Bean’s handwriting for the final card insert that got you to this page. (And while it’s not Christmas, Mr. Bean in Room 426 is also a Nate and Jenny favorite. We’ll leave you to look that one up).
The 2024 Nate and Jenny All American Christmas Card is sponsored by
