Christmas in August? Not quite, although the Bermuda Junior Service League wouldn't mind it too much if Bermudians started thinking already of December 25.

This month, the JSL kicked off its annual Christmas card fundraising campaign, offering four different types of specially commissioned greeting cards in anticipation of the Yuletide season.

Proceeds from the cards, which were created by four local artists and which cost 60 cents each, will be distributed to a number of local charities early next year.

Ms Jacqueline Horsfield, the JSL's public relations officer, said the campaign was expected to raise some $20,000.

"It's always been one of the Service League's more popular endeavours,'' Ms Horsfield said of the Christmas card campaign, which was started by the group in 1977.

"Over the course of its 18-year history, we've raised more than $130,000 with this project alone.'' This year, moreover, should carry on with that tradition.

Featuring a variety of interpretations of Christmas in Bermuda -- from political cartoonist Peter Woolcock's humourously clever "Beware Low Flying Aircraft,'' in which Santa's sleigh nearly clips a pair of moped-riding tourists, to the softer, more traditional contributions of artists Mr. Bruce Stuart ("Christmas Cottage''), Ms Barbara Chenault ("Christmas Poinsettia'') and Ms Jaqui Murray-Hall ("Christmas Kitties'') -- the JSL cards offer something for everyone with their different visions of Noel.

"We have always tried,'' Ms Horsfield told Community, "to bring out a variety of cards.

"Having said that, though, Bruce Stuart has always been extremely popular (with the card-buying public), and has been submitting a yearly card to the campaign on a fairly regular basis.

"Peter Woolcock, too, is always well-received. They've both been chosen regularly in recent card campaigns.'' As tried and as true as the appeal of a Woolcock or a Stuart may be, however, the JSL, Ms Horsfield said last week, would like to see more contributions to the campaign from lesser known artists -- especially from children.

"We had a hard time,'' the Junior Service Leaguer said, "getting artwork submitted this year.

"If people -- and that includes children -- could be thinking over Christmas and the new year about Christmas art (for next year's campaign), we would very much appreciate it.'' As it's been doing since 1977, when some 30,000 cards were printed in the Service League's first campaign, the JSL selects its artwork for the impending season's drive in April.

"Then in August,'' Ms Horsfield noted further, "the actual sales begin, and we're usually sold out of cards by the second week of December.'' To give an indication of how popular the JSL's Christmas card campaign has actually become, the League will be printing an estimated 60,000 cards this year -- double the number of those in 1977.

During that year, moreover, the project made a profit for the League of $1,500.

Last year, Ms Horsfield said, the figure was $21,500 -- "and it all goes back to the community.'' Indeed it does. Last year, a variety of causes were helped with JSL card money, particularly those of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, whose CARE campaign was donated to and whose dialysis unit received a new dialysis machine.

Over the years, other institutions which have benefitted from Christmas card proceeds have included the Reading Clinic, the AIDS-fighting STAR Foundation and the Children's Wish charity, which grants a final request to terminally ill children and which once sent a local child to Disneyland through JSL largesse.

"The individuals and organisations that we donate to,'' Ms Horsfield told Community "always varies. That is the way we operate.'' Any cause, she added, that wished to be aided through the Junior Service League would have to submit a written request to the organisation's finance chairman, Ms Karen Stout.

A decision on which cause gets how much is then made by committee, with the money dispensed on a biannual basis.

"It takes about two to three months to process a request,'' explained Ms Horsfield, who also noted that the money raised through the Christmas card campaign is usually doled out in January.

In addition to the Christmas cards that it prints, the Junior Service League also has two other major fundraising efforts that it conducts every year -- namely its very popular Bermuda Cookbook, a compendium of its members' favourite recipes that has been on bookstore shelves for more than 20 years, and the more recent sale of watercolour-backed playing cards.

"We're going into our second printing of those,'' Ms Horsfield said of the playing cards, which made a profit last year of some $16,000.

With regard to the Christmas cards, meanwhile, Bermudians can take part in this newer seasonal custom of sorts by saying `Happy Holidays' the JSL way.

Each of the cards, which can be purchased through several local stores, can also be ordered directly by calling Ms Joanne Robinson at 293-2201 or Ms Maggie Riker at 293-0544.

`BEWARE LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT' -- A humourously clever look at Christmas in Bermuda, by Peter Woolcock.

`CHRISTMAS KITTIES' -- by Jaqui Murray-Hall -- The JSL's Christmas card campaign made a profit of $21,500 last year, all of which went "back into the community.''