Ken Davy still making Christmas cards with a personal touch at age 96

In years gone by, Christmas cards were as much a tradition of the festive season as hanging stockings and decorating a tree.

Although it's a tradition that's faded in many households, my father, Ken Davy, has done his part to keep it going. For the past 25 years, he has lovingly created his own cards using one of his beautiful landscape paintings on the cover.

The cards became so popular that at one point he was sending out more than 150 to family and friends around the world, painstakingly hand gluing each photo to the card which had been printed with a Christmas greeting and description of the painting.

There's a special sentiment behind some of the paintings that include scenes from the North End as it's where he grew up. His first card was of the James Milk store on James North and the second one of Ed's Variety, also on James North. A later one was a childhood friend's home on Wood Street.

Over the next 24 years, he also included his paintings with scenes from around Burlington, Lowville, Waterdown and Ancaster, like the bench by the lake in Burlington that overlooks the Skyway Bridge and the snow-covered trees in Lowville Park.

The first year my father made the card, he thought of it as a one-time project to showcase one of his paintings.

I've been painting for a good part of my life and, as an artist, you like to let people see your work. The first year I did it, I just thought it would be nice to show some of my friends what I was doing. I had such a good response that I thought I'd do it again the next year," said Ken.

The process of creating the cards has been a labour of love that often began in August, starting with the careful choosing of one of his winter paintings to grace the cover. There were many to choose from as my father is 96, and has been painting since he was a boy.

He learned the art from his father, Dennis Davy, who served in the First World War and found solace in painting scenes from all over Hamilton. Dennis filled many of his canvases with the fishing huts located at Princess Point.

Six years ago, Dennis' paintings and my fathers were part of an art show at the James Street Bookseller and Gallery on James South. One of my father's painting was also accepted by the Art Gallery of Hamilton for its current exhibit of local artists called The Big Show."

Unfortunately, this year's card proved to be the most challenging, partly because my father had health problems which delayed the process. True to his nature, he rebounded after only eight days and was sent home from the hospital.

We then ran into several problems getting the cards printed. Even getting through to the printing company by phone was impossible. It became a team effort as myself and two of his caretakers stepped in and helped with the online ordering and pick up.

The question of which painting would be used was solved when I remembered a painting I'd recently come across in my basement. It was a gorgeous painting of a snow-laden tree beside a pond and a small yellow house in the background.

What made it particularly special was that my father had painted it when he was just 14 years old. It showed how his artistic talents had clearly blossomed at a young age.

It brought back memories for my father who remembered entering it into Eaton's Good Deed Christmas art contest for children and teens. It won him the prize of a tool chest and, even more special, the thrill of seeing his painting in one of the store windows.

They wouldn't tell anyone who the winners were," he recalled. They just opened up the curtains and we would all run over to see who won."

There were several moments during the proaction of this year's card when we hit yet another obstacle and thought the cards wouldn't come to fruition. So seeing them printed was a relief.

When I started doing this 25 years ago, I never guessed I'd still be doing it at 96. But I've had so many compliments from people over the years saying how much they've liked them and that they've framed them and kept them. That's been very satisfying."

Denise Davy is a former Spectator reporter. You can reach her by email at ddavy@cogeco.ca