Let's spend Christmas and New Year's this way! And not in a hospital!
Navy safety poster in green and red: a cartoon Santa Claus with a book marked 'Safety Rules' leans to take the hand of a baby in a diaper marked 1945. The headline sets this scene against a hospital stay. The appeal borrows Santa and the New Year baby, familiar holiday figures, and implies the risk of injury in a single line.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy, Navy Department safety poster (artist Chuck Thorndike)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Navy, Navy Department safety poster (artist Chuck Thorndike). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1279 (NAID 514885).
Text on the object
Let's spend Christmas and New Year's THIS WAY! SAFETY RULES 1945 AND NOT IN A HOSPITAL! NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER [signature: CHUCK THORNDIKE] ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—615951
