Part three of a series on the history and traditions of Christmas.
Despite what you may think, sending Christmas cards is a tradition that started long before Hallmark ever entered the greeting card business.
Originally, people exchanged handwritten Christmas greetings, first in person and later via post. By 1822, homemade Christmas mailings had become the bane of the U.S. postal system. It was such a problem that the Superintendent of Mails in Washington, D.C., complained of the need to hire sixteen extra mailmen. Fearful of future bottlenecks, he even petitioned Congress to limit the exchange of cards by post.
In 1843, Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman, wanted a way to send out Christmas cards to family and friends to help the not so fortunate. Since writing each one out by hand would have been a tedious and timely task, he hired his friend John Callcott Horsley to design it and produce the cards. Horsley produced a triptych with the two side panels depicting a good deed -- clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. The centerpiece featured a party of adults and children, with plentiful food and drink. Under the picture read a caption that said, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You”. A batch of 1,000 of cards was printed on a lithograph stone then hand-colored by a professional named Mason.
While the idea didn’t inspire Sir Henry's friends and family to join in on his crusade, and he didn't send any more cards out the following year, the idea of sending holiday wishes and greetings did begin to spread and others began to produce them. However, Americans who wanted Christmas cards still had to import them from England until 1875 when a German immigrant by the name of Louis Prang started his very own lithography shop within the United States.
At first, Prang didn't create the traditional looking Christmas cards that we're familiar with today. Early Christmas cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies, and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations, and materials. However, soon tasted shifted to wintery scenes and Christmas tidings, so Prang -came up with some of the most beautiful designs ever spied with the human eye. By 1881, Prang was creating better than 5 million Christmas cards every year! Unfortunately, the popularity of cheap penny Christmas postcards imported from Germany forced him out of business in 1890. These cards remained vogue until World War 1 when America’s modern greeting card industry was born.
Today, you can find all sorts of different Christmas cards sporting every Christmas greeting imaginable. More than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually, just within the United States. Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year. However, the estimated number of Christmas cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004. Today, email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters.
 Merry Christmas Commemorative Flat Photo Card by holidaygenius Browse for more invitations online at Zazzle. |
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 Winking Black Santa Keeping Christmas Secrets Cards by egogenius Design your own personalised greeting cards at Zazzle |
Author: Anne Jefferson
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