The History of the Christmas Card
Christmas cards have been sent since the 1800s. The first cards had a hand written message but as technology changed, so did the cards. While some people still make handmade cards at home, many others buy boxes of pre-printed cards, or even send computerized cards through e-mail or texting.
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Origin
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The first Christmas cards were made in England in 1843 when Sir Henry Cole wanted to acknowledge his cause of charity, but had too many contacts to write personal notes. Cole asked artist John Halcott Horsely to paint a picture showing people providing food and clothing to the poor. The resulting picture showed a family hugging and tipping glasses to one another. The words "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You" were printed onto the card. Although his intentions had been pure, the card caused controversy when some people saw it as encouraging consumption of alcohol by children.
Prang Effect
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Although some say Sir Henry did not send any more cards after causing such a controversy, the idea became popular quickly. The following year, 25,000 Christmas cards were sold. All Christmas Cards were made in England until 1875 when German immigrant Louis Prang opened a card shop in the United States. His first Christmas cards did not feature Christmas scenes, but by 1881 Prang was printing 5 million Christmas cards a year.
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Presidential Christmas Cards
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Not everyone agrees on when the tradition of a Presidential Christmas card started. Some say that as early as 1927 President Calvin Coolidge sent official holiday cards with a Presidential Christmas greeting. Others say President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first official White House Christmas card in 1953. In 2008, President George W. Bush sent a "holiday card" rather than a Christmas card, but the card did include a religious reference inside. In 2009, President Obama's holiday card was the first official White House holiday card to contain no reference to a specific religion.
Electronic Christmas Cards
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With the development of the internet came the ability to send electronic Christmas cards. One of the first notices was an April 1995 "Wired" magazine story about e-cards that gave subscribers a link to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology site that had "more than 35 designs." According to Hitwise, an internet data collection site, e-card use peaked during the Christmas season of 2008. It began a month to month decline afterwards that continued through January 2010 as social networking sites increased in popularity.
Appearance
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Early Christmas cards had pictures of fruit and other non-holiday related themes. As time went on, most of them took on pictures of Santa or other winter themes. The commonly seen image of Santa was designed in 1863 for the cover of "Harper's Weekly" magazine. Digital photography makes putting personal pictures on cards easy. In 2010 a Google search for Christmas Photo Design Cards returned more than 9 million results.
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References
- Photo Credit christmas card image by Allyson Ricketts from Fotolia.com
