THERE was something strangely familiar about the little girl on the Christmas card on sale in Jean Coles’s local supermarket. Then the 62-year-old grandmother realised that the picture was of herself.

Mrs Coles was photographed kissing her neighbour, Graham Packham, under a sprig of mistletoe when they were 4 years old.

The picture was taken by Pat Packham, the boy’s father and a keen amateur photographer. He enlisted Jean, who lived in the flat below in Crouch End, North London, and his son, Graham, to pose for him.

Mr Packham sold the picture to an agency but it had never been used in print until Tesco bought it for a series of nostalgic Christmas cards this year. More than one million copies of the card have now been sold.

Mrs Coles, of Bristol, said: “I was doing my normal shopping and was looking at Christmas cards when I saw a familiar photograph and realised it was me. I was just dazed going round the shop. When I got to the checkout I said to the girl on the till: ‘That’s me on there’. It was amazing to see it.

“To think that my picture could be on people’s mantelpieces is great.”

Mrs Coles said: “I remember the picture being taken. Graham was holding a box of Smarties. When I asked for some of the sweets he wouldn’t let me have any so I burst into tears.”

Graham Packham, who lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, was equally surprised. The retired college professor said: “I can’t even remember the picture being taken — my father took so many of them. He always had his camera in his hand and took thousands of images. He drove people mad with it.”

At the time his father was working as a darkroom operative for Fox Photos in London. Some of the pictures he took were sold to agencies to supplement the family income but most went to libraries for public use.

When his father retired he moved to Skipton, in West Yorkshire, with Graham’s mother, Chris. Both died 15 years ago.

The photograph of the kiss, taken in 1947, lay in a picture library until it was chosen for use on the card this year.

Mr Packham said: “I’m absolutely gobsmacked that this one is being sold as a Christmas card in Tesco.

“My father’s pictures have turned up now and again but nothing like this. This has made my Christmas.”

Mrs Coles, a postwoman for 27 years, is bemused by the idea that she may have posted her own image through people’s letterboxes. She said: “I am astounded that they have sold over one million cards with me on them. If that is the case, I would have almost certainly delivered the cards on my round.”

A spokesman for Tesco said: “It is a lovely Christmas card and has proved extremely popular. We hope that the card has brought back lovely memories for Jean and Graham.”

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