Christmas card sent back and forth since 1941

Associated Press

DANNEBROG, Neb.

For three quarters of a century, the same Christmas card featuring a Scottish man in a kilt has made its way through the mail either to or from a Nebraska woman.

The Kearney Hub reports that it began in 1941, when Lois Margaret Frandsen of Dannebrog sent the card to her cousin and life-long friend Janice “Neicie” Hansen, who was living with her husband at a Washington State military base at the time.

In 1942, Hansen sent it back to Frandsen. The next year, Frandsen sent it back to Hansen.

And so it has gone, every year since the early days of World War II, despite Hansen’s death in 2009. Her daughter is now the recipient.

“Why did I keep sending it?” Frandsen, 94, asked. “We had a heck of a lot of fun together. That card traveled a lot of miles. I would keep it in the China hutch so it wouldn’t get lost.”

Frandsen first mailed the card around the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The exchange continued as the Hansens moved to New Jersey while Richard Hansen was stationed at Fort Dix. It followed them back to Nebraska, too.

The card always arrived on time and never got lost.

Hansen celebrated her last Christmas in 2008, at age 93. She died the following year.

Frandsen sent the card to Hansen’s daughter, Bonnie Leahy, who lives in Illinois. The next year, Leahy sent it back.

The tradition continues.