Marines killing time in the aftermath of last month's ferocious battle for the Iraqi rebel stronghold have spun a grim joke into an unlikely source of holiday cheer.

Marine James Brisch, a corporal with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines' Charlie Company, takes postcard-sized pieces of cardboard cut from provisions boxes and carefully inks in Fallujah's low, stubby skyline underneath a generic greeting: Merry Christmas from Fallujah.

He then gives them to other members of his squad to color in and personalize -- most often with bombs, flames or bullet holes -- before writing a message to their families on the other side and putting them in the mail.

"At first it was kind of a sick joke -- putting happy holidays on it was politically correct but then you have everything on fire, which is pretty politically incorrect. There's a lot of black humor," says Brisch.

"Marines can find irony in anything," adds Corporal Nick Misiano.

As thousands of US and Iraqi troops stormed Fallujah on November 8 in a bid to wrest the Sunni Muslim city from insurgents, Brisch, Misiano and the rest of Charlie Company battled gunmen as they moved through its cramped northern streets.

"This is basically what we saw every day," says Brisch, trying to explain his creations.

"It just kind of came naturally. There are a lot of inside jokes."

Corporal Terry Brooks says he's sending one to his family and another to a niece.

He holds up a current work in progress. Floating over the tops of buildings shot through with shells, are the words "Boom", "Boom" and "Boom", while insurgents fire down from rooftops and flames lick at the night sky.

"I don't know, maybe she (his niece) can bring it to show-and-tell at school or something. We'll all have something to remember this by -- to look at a few years down the line and laugh."

The marines, all young men who said Fallujah was their first time in combat, do not know how they are going to explain their time in Iraq to friends and family back in the United States.

"I've seen so much in the last month, enough to last me years," says Brooks.

Although their cards might be pushing the boundaries of good taste, the marines say they are also part of trying to make sense of the last few weeks.

When asked if they thought their families were going to be alarmed by their creations, Misiano said he thought his parents would be "more at ease".

"Despite all the madness we've experienced in the last few weeks, we still have a sense of humor. We can still laugh. Our families will know we've got holiday spirit and are thinking of home."

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