Christmas Cards Through the Ages
The observance of delivering Christmas cards started in 1843 with Sir Henry Cole of England.
Because he had too many co-workers to hand write Christmas tidings, Sir Henry Cole enlisted artist John Calcott Horsley to create a card onto which he had printed “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You”.He had one thousand cards printed.Of those, twelve remain today.The practice of sending Christmas cards caught on and soon, became a Christmas tradition.
In the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, Kate Greenaway, a popular childrens writer, created some of the most well-known Christmas cards.She often made cards with different fabrics and fringe. Some were even elaborate pop-ups featuring skaters and tiny mangers.
It was not until 1875 in the United States that Christmas cards were available to the masses. In that year, Louis Prang, a German immigrant began producing them in his publishing shop in Boston. BeforeUntil to that time, Americans imported Christmas cards from England. In the 1890′s, Prang could not compete with cheaper cards produced in other countries and went out of business. Even so, Prang is known as the forefather of the American Christmas card.
The card industry saw many technical advancements during World War I with fierce competition between card companies.
During the Great Depression, the use of color lithography rejuvenated the card industry.
The 1950′s saw a major change in how greeting cards were created: now, humor was an element. ‘Staple cards’ as they are known, are still very popular today.
With the introduction of e-mail in the 1990′s, electronic cards or ‘e-cards’ became widely popular.
Today, there are many types of Christmas card available, including traditional and religious Christmas cards to funny Christmas cards. In fact, the industry has evolved so much that there is a card for virtually any event, or “non-event.” Still, Christmas remains the highest ranking of the card-selling holidays.
As a staple of the holidays, Christmas cards are sent to family, friends and business colleagues to express holiday wishes. With people’s busy lives, it is often the only time they update family and friends on events that happened in their lives during the year. They are always evolving; from e-cards to written letters chronicling the year, to picture postcards, the warm sentiment is always there: Merry Christmas!
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