Good Tidings: Nonprofit Holiday Cards

The New Globe Theater's holiday card is a winner because it well conveys the group's romantic vision to turn a military fortress on Governors Island into a Shakespearean theater for the New World. The illustration shows the theater design by Norman Foster in the context of a Governors Island covered in snow. As the text on the card says, "In New York Harbor stands a decaying military fortification built to defend America against the British in the War of 1812 ... and it happens to have the identical blueprint as Shakespeare's Globe Theate. Thus, the opportunity has arisen to recast our history of war into a future of culture and education." The New Globe Theater's proposal is in a category of its own as far as redevelopment ideas go. It concerns the fortress Castle Williams, property of the National Park Service, and therefore not on the land Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation is responsible for transforming. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation recruited the author and illustrator of the graphic novel "Cancer Vixen," Marisa Acocella Marchetto, to create its holiday card, which arrived in the mail just days after research found the rate of breast cancer has dropped 15% since 2002. The foundation has had tremendous success branding the color pink with the effort to fight breast cancer, and the card greeting is just another example of its cleverness at doing so. The foundation has helped establish many ways to shop for the holidays and support breast cancer research. Some products to consider as gifts: the classic Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra pendant set in pink gold with pink sapphires ($1,950), pink yoga mats from MatsMatsMats.com ($22), K2 Phat Luv skis ($700), and Bobbi Brown Pink Bouquet Shimmer Lip Gloss ($21). And to clean up after the big family gathering: pink Viva paper towels ($1.79 to $10.79). Creative Time meanwhile delivers the goods -- pages of video, fiction, a hearth screensaver, and holiday entertaining tips -- in web-based holiday book sent out this morning. Check it out here.