Peerless Xmas CD rom, alarmed by the children in the images

[lynnieb]

I don't think having ragamuffin kids on a christmas card is approriate. Enjoy your day while looking at these kids in the freezing cold begging for coppers!! I can't return it as i didn't lknow til i opened it up, `but I won't buy peerless again. Who e er thought that was a good idea?? I know the images aren't real, but still, they don''t embody the spirit of christmas, and kids in Victorian days DID live in those conditions. Why not go the whol.re hog and stick a workhouse on the card?

[Rentochops]

I don't think having ragamuffin kids on a christmas card is approriate. Enjoy your day while looking at these kids in the freezing cold begging for coppers!! I can't return it as i didn't lknow til i opened it up, `but I won't buy peerless again. Who e er thought that was a good idea?? I know the images aren't real, but still, they don''t embody the spirit of christmas, and kids in Victorian days DID live in those conditions. Why not go the whol.re hog and stick a workhouse on the card?

Well I suppose if you look at it that way then we shouldn't read A Christmas Carol - tbh images will not suit everybody, perhaps you should concentrate on the designs you do like.

[murchison]

sadly ragamuffin images are part of victorian times and appear on a lot of victorian christmas cds may be if your buying christmas cds give victorian times a miss and go moden

[hobbit]

I bought that cd and thought it was a nice one - the ragamuffin kids are only a few of the images. Maybe I am just hard hearted because it never occurred to me that they were inappropriate.

[sheilaj]

I think you are right...lets go modern and have homeless folk and Big Issue sellers on our cards :(

[craftycat]

I've got this CD and rather liked the children images - for the art work. I suppose you could argue that the heaving tables Victorian images are offensive too as they could be seen to be the uncaring face of Christmas, people enjoying themselves while others suffer!

[sheilaj]

we all have different ways of looking at things and the images mean different things. I can't use the bird and cage images that are so popular now if the bird is in the cage with the door shut, don't like dressed up dogs and cats but am okay with dressed up teddy bears

[Little Jan]

Think its a case of each to their own, I can't stand anything overly cute, except for kids cards and I don't make them.
So I tend to steer clear of any craft like that.I have one Victorian cd that I use for the comic take more then a serious card.
although I did make a card from it with an old fashion santa kissing the cheek of a little girl that the reciepiant thought was distastfull.
I guess her grandchildren will never sit on santas lap in chain store.
Think this it taking it too far.

[vampyre]

Think its a case of each to their own, I can't stand anything overly cute, except for kids cards and I don't make them.
So I tend to steer clear of any craft like that.I have one Victorian cd that I use for the comic take more then a serious card.
although I did make a card from it with an old fashion santa kissing the cheek of a little girl that the reciepiant thought was distastfull.
I guess her grandchildren will never sit on santas lap in chain store.
Think this it taking it too far.

That is excessive imho LJ, I don't like how paranoid society is becoming rather than just being cautious which is necessary sadly.

I probably wouldn't use the images being referred to but I wouldn't object to their inclusion.

[kitty]

That is excessive imho LJ, I don't like how paranoid society is becoming rather than just being cautious which is necessary sadly.

I probably wouldn't use the images being referred to but I wouldn't object to their inclusion.

I agree, but I did once have to arrest a father Christmas in a shop for pinching a purse off a mum when I was a WPC!

[Competa]

Use another image then!

[Rentochops]

You'd better steer clear of Joanna Sheen then lol sorry this is political correctness gone mad!

[Granny Penny]

Oh linnieb I do feel for you. It is so hard to know what is going to effect you at a later date and you probably didn't notice at the time you bought it. I find I can be going along cheerfully and then something will catch me out. On the whole I am glad to be a sensitive soul but sometimes it's very upsetting. I think you will just have to put the CD away for now. You never know you may see it differently at another time.

[lynnieb]

I personally just think Christmas isn't a time for showing poverty stricken children! And Charles Dickens was a great supporter of the poor and a huge critic of conditions of the time. I know its each to their own, and I only ordered the Rom from the website, I didn't see the actual show so I didn't realise these images were there. I wouldn't have ordered it otherwise. I'll just use the birds images and the background sheets instead.

[vampyre]

I don't celebrate Christmas although I make cards for those who do. I am quite in favour of showing the deprived at a time when some people can be verging on excessive consumerism. Horrible old saw though it is, it's true that to comfort the afflicted you may need to afflict the comfortable.

[LoobyLou]

If this Government has it's own way we will all be begging on the streets by Christmas! Unless, of course, we are bankers. Cos they are gonna do it again. Giving away bonuses to the tune of £7billion, back to the level they were before the recession they in large part caused! Beggers (no pun intended) belief - Bring back Bonnie and Clyde I say, or Robin Hood.

[vampyre]

If this Government has it's own way we will all be begging on the streets by Christmas! Unless, of course, we are bankers. Cos they are gonna do it again. Giving away bonuses to the tune of £7billion, back to the level they were before the recession they in large part caused! Beggers (no pun intended) belief - Bring back Bonnie and Clyde I say, or Robin Hood.

The government here will probably bring in charges and taxes for anyone who wishes to beg on the streets. Seriously I hope it won't be a brutal winter for the unfortunates on the streets and the genuinely in need anywhere

[LoobyLou]

Didn't the Government have to bail the banks out AGAIN in Ireland Vampy?

As for taxing you for begging. I am still waiting on the tax on air. Oh yeah, it's already here. I have a friend with way worse COPD than I have and she has to pay for her own oxygen!

[suban]

I agree, but I did once have to arrest a father Christmas in a shop for pinching a purse off a mum when I was a WPC!

At least he wasn't flashing!!!! :)

[sheilaj]

I don't celebrate Christmas although I make cards for those who do. I am quite in favour of showing the deprived at a time when some people can be verging on excessive consumerism. Horrible old saw though it is, it's true that to comfort the afflicted you may need to afflict the comfortable.

agreed but not to depict it as being right or cute. One of my favourite hymns is all things bright and beautiful. There is one verse that is never sung nowadays...
"the rich man in his castle
the poor man at his gate;
He made them high and lowly
He ordered their estate."

That's the attitude that Dickens was fighting

[craftycat]

agreed but not to depict it as being right or cute. One of my favourite hymns is all things bright and beautiful. There is one verse that is never sung nowadays...
"the rich man in his castle
the poor man at his gate;
He made them high and lowly
He ordered their estate."

That's the attitude that Dickens was fighting

One of the reasons that hymn is not a favourite of mine! I do agree that these images could come over as cutesy and they are not my personal taste. I know some people who would love to have a card with one of the children on them. Reason? They are Christians and dislike what commerce has done to Christmas. They would see a card like that as a reminder of the suffering in the world and a reminder of why Christ came into the world.

I'm definitely not a Christian but can see the relevance of their view. What an interesting thread this is.

Will I be using any of those children on cards? Probably not. I bought the CD for the plant images mainly. Still don't actually see anything wrong with the children ones though.

[vampyre]

I haven't seen the images and as I said I wouldn't use them but I don't see how it's possible to make a begging for alms child cutesy, it's just something very sad. As for the hymn, I agree the sentiment is awful and that we think so is a reminder that change can be a very good thing.
I dislike the Irish national anthem (for many reasons :grin:) because it's full of allusions to the political struggle for independence and how blood soaked it all was. Nothing about the beauty of the country and its heritage in other ways.

[hobbit]

I've just rechecked the cd - being curious.

There are four images featuring children that I think are the ones being referred to - one with a little girl selling chestnuts, one with a small boy and what looks like a shovel, one with a girl selling flowers and one with a small boy and a broom.

All the other pictures of children are of them on sleds etc. Any type of child isn't my choice for card toppers, but there are actually only four such images out of a lot on what I think is actually a good value cd. It's a shame if anyone is put off buying it because of those 4 images...

[craftycat]

I actually prefer the "working children" images to the other children ones but I didn't buy the CD for any of those. Lots more designs to chose from. Overall the CD is very good value.