Metro-east twins’ annual Christmas cards soon to become an art exhibit

Dave McFarland, donning a head-to-toe Santa costume, had been given strict orders not to step onto the field at Busch Stadium.

It was photo shoot day for the McFarland family’s annual Christmas card in 1996. Dave and Kevin McFarland were at the stadium, hoping to get a shot of Santa — modeled by Dave himself — playing ball.

The man who got them into Busch Stadium watched closely as the twins tried one, two, three times to get a card-worthy shot near the dugout, but none of the photos hit the mark.

That is, until the stadium official got a phone call and stepped away to take it.

The pair dashed onto the field, pitched the ball and took one photo before running back to the dugout. That photo made the card.

When the other man came back, Dave and Kevin said he didn’t suspect a thing.

It’s one of 43 annual Christmas cards to date made by the McFarlands, colloquially known as DMac and KMac since the fraternal twins were in college together. But now the cards span three generations of McFarland boys and a whole lot of St. Louis sports history.

“Every card has a story — every one,” Dave said.

The family’s portfolio of Christmas cards and other memorabilia will be on display at Southwestern Illinois College’s Schmidt Art Center July 16 and 17. The exhibit will span the last four decades of cards, including this year’s card featuring longtime SWIC basketball coach Jay Harrington.

For now, the family’s archive of Christmas memorabilia covers the walls of a bedroom at Kevin’s Waterloo home. It’s not just traditional cards: The family has whipped up custom baseball cards, parody Wheaties boxes, 45 rpm records and Cracker Jack boxes stuffed with temporary tattoos worn by attendees at a McFarland boy’s wedding.

The cards celebrate milestone moments in the family’s history with the twins’ four sons, Brendan, Jordan, Mason and Colin. They span from the birth of Kevin’s first son — taken in the hospital while his wife, Wendy, was in labor — to their sons’ marriages and the debut of a third generation of McFarland boys in last year’s card.

“What started 44 years ago with just sending out a few cards at Christmas time has turned into a family documentary,” Kevin said. “It’s a timeline of your life, basically.”

The cards are also an unexpected historical record of St. Louis sports. The cards’ settings run the gamut of iconic St. Louis baseball, from a pack of baseball cards commemorating Stan “The Man” Musial to a smiling picture next to a box of TNT when old Busch Stadium was being demolished.

“We’d be going to Busch Stadium, getting on the field, getting in the clubhouse, and to kids, we’re just like, ‘Oh, this is normal,’” Brendan said. “When you get a little older, then you look back on it and think to yourself how cool these moments truly were.”

For the 2006 card, the McFarlands recreated an iconic 1968 Sports Illustrated cover of the Cardinals from the away team’s locker room at Busch Stadium after the team won the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Kevin said they had to take the photo in the other team’s locker room because the Cardinals’ room was still doused in champagne.

“I always joke with Dave that we’re the only people who have Christmas cards that include people beyond the family,” Kevin said.

Kevin’s favorite card was the 2003 card that saw the twins and their sons recreate “The Steve Bartman Incident,” in which a Cubs fan deflected a foul ball and, according to outfielder Moises Alou, soured the team’s chances of winning a long-awaited National League pennant against the Florida Marlins.

It was the first of many cards with all four sons in the picture.

“That’s about as special as it gets,” Dave said. “One of these years, we’re gonna toss it off to the guys and say, ‘It’s your turn.’”

None of the boys remember a life without the tradition. Dave’s son Brendan said he can trace his life story in Christmas cards.

“I’ve got a bad memory, so I don’t remember a lot of stuff, but those cards I do remember because they’re so ingrained,” Brendan said. “You can point back to say, “Okay, in this card, Jordan was graduating high school. And this one, Mason was going off to college.”

Now, the McFarland boys are scattered across the country, with Brendan and Jordan settling down in Texas and Mason working as an engineer for the U.S. Air Force in Salt Lake City.

Mason McFarland, an engineer in the U.S. Air Force in Salt Lake City, said he feels nostalgic for the chaos of the annual family photo.

“ As we’re all scrambling around, I’m like, “You know what? This is the family right here,” Mason said. “ The holiday season’s definitely a little bit different when you’re not back at home with the guys doing the Christmas card together.”

To get each of the boys in the Christmas card last year, Dave traveled to each one’s home to recreate a Norman Rockwell parody self-portrait from the 1995 McFarland card. The new self-portraits with Brendan and Jordan with their kids gave a third generation of McFarland boys their own debut in the annual card.

“ I had tears in my eyes taking pictures and stuff, saying, “Man, I can’t believe that our boys are this big,’” Dave said. “The early days are great with KMac, but it just gets so much nicer when you include the boys and the grandsons.”

The brothers said they plan to eventually pass the tradition to their sons, who they hope will keep it alive despite the distance. But KMac and DMac said they don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

“We’ll keep going as long as we keep the ideas,” Dave said. “It’s definitely a family affair, and, God willing, as long as everybody stays healthy, we’ll keep it going as long as we can.”

Dave and Kevin would like to thank the team at the SWIC Schmidt Art Center for the opportunity to share their family’s prized tradition.