Two Cardinal prints for the Christmas-and-winter season: a solo male portrait and a male on snow-touched holly. Both in the same Audubon-style palette as the rest of the print shop, both on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag.

This is the transitional Christmas SKU for the 2026 season. The full Christmas Birds Set of 4 - Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, American Goldfinch, Eastern Bluebird - will launch in Q4 2027 once those additional plates are in production. For now, the Christmas Cardinal Pair is the December set that ships.

What is in the set

Cardinal Solo - Male in full crimson, alert and bright, on an arching dogwood branch. The classic portrait plate.

Cardinal in Snow - Male on a holly branch with red berries and fresh snowfall. The Christmas plate. The plate that does the symbolic work for the bereavement calendar.

Sizes and prices

Size	Per print	Pair total	Saving vs two singles
A4	21 x 29.7 cm	€68	€8 saving (2 x €38 = €76)
A3	29.7 x 42 cm	€104	€12 saving (2 x €58 = €116)
A2	42 x 59.4 cm	€168	€16 saving (2 x €92 = €184)

Paper and edition

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm, acid-free, 100% cotton. Open edition.

Why a Cardinal-only Christmas set

The cardinal is the bird most associated with American Christmas, for reasons that have very little to do with religion. The species does not migrate, holds a year-round red plumage that reads against snow as the highest-contrast image in winter backyard birding, and arrived in the Christmas card economy via Louis Prang’s Boston lithography press in the 1880s. (Full story at How the cardinal became a Christmas bird.)

For households where the cardinal carries the weight of remembering a departed loved one, the symbolic load tends to concentrate around Christmas. The Cardinal in Snow plate is the plate that does this work without the seasonal cliche - no ribbons, no ornaments, no overlay. The bird in his element. The widow at the window.

The set is designed to be displayed through December and either taken down for January or kept up year-round. The palette (cream, navy, holly red) is restrained enough that the prints do not read as “Christmas only” decor.

How to hang the pair

• Side-by-side: 15 cm of wall between them, both at viewer eye level. The most common configuration.
• Above a mantelpiece: The pair sits well above a hearth in December, with the Solo on the left and the Snow on the right.
• Stacked: A4 prints in a vertical column work in narrow walls.

Framing: 5 cm cream or off-white mount, thin natural-wood frame. Avoid red mounts (overdoes the colour story). Indirect daylight only.

Shipping and Q4 timing

Rolled in a single acid-free archival tube. Tracked international delivery from Ireland. Standard dispatch within three working days.

For Q4 2026 Christmas delivery: order by December 8 for US/EU delivery, December 1 for the rest of the world. After those dates we cannot guarantee Christmas-week arrival.

About the bird

See Northern Cardinal field guide for the full natural history. The short version: he does not migrate, the female sings nearly as much as the male, the pair stays together for years, and the bird at your December feeder is the same bird who was there in July.

Size	Dimensions	Price
A4 pair	2 prints at 21 x 29.7 cm	€68
A3 pair	2 prints at 29.7 x 42 cm	€104
A2 pair	2 prints at 42 x 59.4 cm	€168

Printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm.