The Christmas card the Kennedys never sent

Jacqueline and Jack Kennedy had finished many of their holiday plans before they left for a 2-day campaign trip to Texas on November 21. They planned spending Thanksgiving at the Kennedy’s Hyannis Port estate and Christmas in Palm Beach with JFK’s parents. There was also a televised Christmas pageant at the White House.

The couple had already ordered their Christmas cards, a 4 1/2- by 6 1/2-inch custom-made Hallmark that featured on the outside a photo of an 18th-century nativity scene they had in the White House’s East Room. It was the first time a White House Christmas card used a religious image. The inside had an embossed seal of an American eagle with an olive branch in one talon and arrows in the other.