Abstract
<jats:p>The article analyzes the visual characteristics of Christmas greeting cards of the early 20th century from the personal archive of Prof. Andriy Rudnytskyi, in terms of the presence of visual markers of Ukrainian ethnocultural identity and artistic and compositional means of its representation. In general, there are a significant number of publications about historical postcards of the mentioned period, which are in the collections of museums, libraries, and private collections, both thematic albums and scientific articles of an art, ethnographic, and local history direction. This study does not concern a specially formed collection; these are postcards that have been accidentally preserved in the family and are also interesting from an ideological perspective. According to the content characteristics the existing postcards can be divided into three main groups: with secular subjects, religious subjects, and with folk attributes. The main part of the collection consists of postcards with religious Christmas motifs, as well as those that indirectly depict Christmas through Ukrainian ritual traditions. In addition to the main, directly communicative function, Ukrainian Christmas cards were a means of cultural and educational activity, popularization of Ukrainian cultural and artistic heritage, their creation was approached with all responsibility; the visual content was compactly arranged, informatively rich, aimed at preserving and forming Ukrainian ethno-cultural priorities in the absence of their own state. For famous Ukrainian artists, work on the design of Christmas cards was a very important task. The conclusions of the article may be useful in terms of modern challenges in the context of digital technologies, which enhance the importance of a responsible approach to the choice of visual markers of ethnocultural identity in terms of the impact of mass visual content on public consciousness.</jats:p>