OTTAWA - There may be snow on the ground on Parliament Hill, but on many of this year's parliamentary holiday cards it's not looking a lot like Christmas.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's annual card has him posing with wife Laureen and children Rachel and Ben on the leaf-strewn lawn of 24 Sussex Drive, autumn light dappling his sweater.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is even more removed from the season, smiling with wife Zsuzsanna at a summer barbecue.
Inside his card, NDP chief Jack Layton is pictured standing with his wife, MP Olivia Chow, under a garden trellis. But the front of the card has a more festive spirit -- the Parliament buildings awash in twinkling lights.
New Gov. Gen. David Johnston poses in front of Rideau Hall's renovated greenhouse along with his wife, Sharon, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Cato.
MPs can choose from a portfolio of stock images or shoot their own photos. Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay used a photo she took at the top of a barren ski run at dawn.
Some use the opportunity to show off growing families.
Transport Minister Chuck Strahl has a picture of his 10 grandchildren posing in a nativity scene, a poem on the inside of the card explaining how much they love the story of Christmas night.
Industry Minister Tony Clement sits flanked by his wife, three children and their dog, with a few leaves scattered on the snow-free ground.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt chose a close-up of her hugging her two smiling boys. There's no snow, but they are wearing Winter Olympic hoodies.
Liberal MP Scott Brison used an updated version of a photo that caused a commotion last year -- of him and his same-sex spouse. This year, it's Brison and Maxime St. Pierre hiking at Cape Split, N.S., with their golden retriever.
The unique nature of Brison's card makes it valuable for political memorabilia collectors. Bill Greenberg, who lives in Timmins, Ont., has been collecting political Christmas cards since he was sixteen.
"I find them cool -- watching the leadership evolve and their families grow," he said.
The investment adviser has over 600 Canadian cards in his collection, the oldest coming from cabinet ministers in the Mackenzie King government.
He buys and sells the cards on eBay or at memorabilia shows, sometimes trading other pieces of political ephemera for the greetings. Last year, he sold a Richard Nixon card for $125 and a Joe Clark one for $35.
Greenberg said Canadian politicians tend to use photographs more often than their American counterparts, and include scenes of them actually working in their ridings.
"Even if they are posing at that particular location, it gives you a sense of the country," he said.
Or a sense of the world.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay again turned to soldiers as his holiday backdrop, this time in Afghanistan. But while last year one was clutching a beer, this year the only beverage in hand is a water bottle.
