The National Park Service is charged with preserving our nation’s history, including millions of original documents, photos, drawings, maps, personal letters, and other important records that chronicle the vital heritage and stories of the American people. And sometimes, the NPS archival collections even include some lighthearted mementos from our shared past.  

Case in point: this holiday card from 1949. It shows a three-year-old Billy Blythe standing at his family’s fireplace. Why is this worth saving, you might ask? Because Billy (later William Jefferson Clinton) grew up to become the 42^nd President of the United States.

The staff at President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site also unearthed these greeting cards from the Blythe family, probably from the same year. (Little Billy must have been kept busy posing for photos!)

Naturally, no one in the Blythe family knew that young Bill would eventually grow up to be President…or did they? His maternal grandmother Edith Cassidy prophetically wrote to a friend about a present she and her husband were planning to give her grandson:

Sometimes a nostalgic look at the past helps us put the present in perspective. So consider these quaint holiday messages from 1949 as our way of wishing you a