The Three Rivers Endoscopy Center developed a "Star Wars"-themed holiday card this year featuring the seven medical professionals battling a colon polyp with lightsabers. Click photo for larger image.
In 2000, Susan Orr's card, left, featured herself, her daughter, Katie, and the family cat, Jesse, standing with John Lennon flashing the peace sign at the Statue of Liberty. Click photo for larger image.

Dennis Childers, his wife, Bea, and their children, Nick and Elena, stood side by side on a snowy rooftop, their hands high in the air.

A few feet away, George W. Bush trained an assault rifle on Saddam Hussein emerging from a chimney.

They all wore Santa hats. Their Belgian shepherd, Zuckler, growled.

No, it's not some crazy dream or a drug-induced hallucination. It's a Christmas eCard.

"Don't shoot, we thought it was Santa Claus!!! Happy Holidays From the Childers Luna Family" reads the greeting on Mr. Childers' 2003 Christmas eCard creation.

In 2002, the foursome posed with Winston Churchill, John Lennon, two of the Spice Girls and Zuckler -- all flashing peace signs -- urging recipients to "Have a Peaceful Holiday."

No need to fiddle with the space-time continuum or raise the dead.

Home computers with picture-editing software are enabling more people each year to channel their inner Romare Bearden and create their own, unique, collage-style Christmas cards and eCards. Mixing personal photographs with pictures or images found on the Internet or scanned into the computer is relatively easy with a few clicks of the mouse.

"Where Saddam Hussein is coming out of the chimney was actually an old Christmas card with Santa coming out of the chimney and I put [on] Saddam's face," says Mr. Childers, 47, of Highland Park. "I got a picture of that seizure of the Cuban kid [Elian Gonzalez] and put George Bush's face on [the INS agent's]. You just cut and paste, really."

Professionals use upper-end photo-editing software, such as Photoshop, to make such creations. However, most computers sold in the past few years have some type of simpler photo image or photo-editing software that enables regular people to paint, rotate or stretch pictures, mix them with images and other photographs and save them as a file.

"The idea is not to make it look like we're really there," says Mr. Childers, a digital media arts teacher at the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. "I want it to have some kind of a humorous thing. I don't want it to be too serious, though it usually reflects whatever is going on at the time."

The Saddam Hussein card was sent out shortly after U.S. military forces found Saddam hiding in the hole. The Churchill-Lennon-Spice Girls card was sent out the Christmas prior to the start of the second Iraq War.

"You can find some great pictures on the Internet, but they're not always fair game because of copyright concerns," says Stephen Butler, a graphic designer and assistant dean of academic affairs at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. There are, however, photographs in the public domain and Web sites where people contribute photos that are free for public use, such as www.morguefile.com.

The 2004 family Christmas card Stephen Butler did for his friend, Susan Orr, had a Reservoir Dogs theme, featuring her and her two daughters and two cats. Click photo for larger image.
Dennis Childers' 2002 family Christmas card featuring Winston Churchill, John Lennon and two Spice Girls. Click photo for larger image.

Mr. Butler has helped his friend, Susan Orr, design her Christmas cards for several years.

In 2000, Ms. Orr's Christmas card featured herself, her daughter, Katie, and the family cat, Jesse, standing with John Lennon flashing the peace sign at the Statue of Liberty, and all they were saying in the card was, "Give Peace a Chance."

"This is a fun card that utilizes a celebrity and some basic cut-and-paste techniques," Mr. Butler says. "I'll go and make it look like they were really there."

The famed John Lennon at the Statue of Liberty photograph obviously is a popular one. Both Mr. Childers and Mr. Butler have used it in holiday cards.

The increased popularity of digital cameras has greatly contributed to more people making their own cards and eCards.

"Once people got used to using digital cameras and once they realized all they had to do was plug them into their computer and their pictures were in there and they could play with them, that really opened up a lot of possibilities," Mr. Butler says.

A larger variety of custom papers for cards now is available at office supply stores, making it easier for people to print their own holiday cards if they don't want to just send them via e-mail. Color printers also are cheaper and can handle more types of paper.

"People who used to do holiday letters can now do cards because they can run it through an inkjet printer," he says. "They can get nice papers. They have pre-scored and pre-folded cards that you can buy."

Ms. Orr has created her own Christmas cards since 1987, but started having friends help her with ones on the computer in 1990.

"A lot of times, I do pop culture," says Ms. Orr, 40, of Aspinwall.

In cards, she's parodied Austin Powers and the Brady Bunch squares, and last year her family Christmas card had a "Reservoir Dogs" theme.

"The cats were involved, but there wasn't any violence," she says. "The cats were holding Santa hats instead of guns."

The cards have become a tradition, with friends and family looking forward to seeing what she'll come up with next. She enjoys formulating the ideas for the cards and working with her friend, Mr. Butler.

"Every year, without fail, he sees my vision and nails it," she says. "He makes my vision come to life."

Creating these cards is fun to do, Mr. Childers says, and since they always have a humorous touch, his friends and family love them, too.

Last year, he had planned out the family's Christmas eCard in advance and was going to send out one picturing the family with John Kerry that said, "Have a very Kerry Christmas."

"But Kerry lost the election," he says. "When he lost, it just took the wind out of my sails. My wife kept saying, 'Where's the Christmas card? Where's the Christmas card?' and I said, 'I don't know what to do.' "

The Three Rivers Endoscopy Center -- a gastroenterology endoscopic services group in Moon -- has a "Star Wars"-themed holiday card this year, featuring the seven medical professionals in the practice dressed as Jedi Knights on the front, and, inside the card, wielding lightsabers to fight a patient's colon polyp, set against the backdrop of a colon.

"Actually, it's clothes dryer hose and we made it pink," says Dr. Robert Fusco, the center's medical director. "It's a more natural-looking background than a real colon and fits into the theme better."

"Happy Holidays from the Physicians and Staff of Three Rivers Endoscopy Center, Your GI Jedi," reads this year's card sent to 3,500 patients and vendors.

Each year the doctors come up with the idea for the card and have a professional photographer take the pictures. Dr. Fusco then uses computer software to manipulate the individual images and lay out the card. He then takes it to a professional graphic and design outfit to give it a more polished look.

Working on the card, as they have for six years now, brings members of the practice together. It has become an annual holiday event for them to go to dinner after they have the photographs taken for the card.

Colon cancer and the need for services such as a colonoscopy or endoscopy are serious business.

"We make a little light of what we do and try to raise awareness in a sort of humorous way," he says. "We have received a very positive response."

In October, patients told him how much they loved 2004's "Men in Back" holiday card and how much they were looking forward to this year's card.

"We already have an idea of what we'll do next year, but it's a closely guarded secret," Dr. Fusco says. "It's a lot of fun."