The First Christmas Card
John Callcott Horsley designed the world’s first commercially produced Christmas card for Sir Henry Cole in 1843.
Cole was part of the elite social circle in Victorian England. During the holiday season of 1843, having too many friends caused Cole much anxiety.
The old custom in England of sending Christmas and New Year’s letters boomed with the British postal system introducing the “Penny Post.” A letter or card could then be sent anywhere in the country for the cost of a penny stamp.
Now, everybody was sending letters, but Sir Henry Cole was a busy man. He watched the stacks of unanswered correspondence and fretted over what to do. In Victorian England, it was considered impolite not to answer mail, and being the 1840s equivalent of an A-Lister, Cole had to figure out a way to respond to all of these people.
Cole asked his artist friend, John Callcott. Horsley, to design an idea he had sketched out. Cole had a thousand copies on stiff cardboard made by a London printer. On each postcard he had printed “TO:_____” so he could “personalize” the generic greeting “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You.”
Thus was born the first Christmas card.
The Modern Christmas Card
In the early 1900s, a man named Joyce Hall started a revolution that resulted in creating the modern-day Christmas card.
In 1905, he and his brothers spent $540 to buy picture postcards to sell to store owners and retailers in Norfolk, Nebraska. A few years later, they opened their own little store in Kansas City, Missouri, selling the postcards and other greeting cards, but the store sadly burned down just a little while later. After that, The Hall Brothers bought an engraving business and printed their own cards.
Their customers wanted to write more than what would fit on a postcard. This resulted in a card that was 4 x 6 inches folded once, and inserted into an envelope. By 1928, the cards were being produced under the brand we all know today as Hallmark.
Christmas cards in the twentieth century reflected the times and artistic styles of each decade.
With the advent of computers and digital photography, families could now shoot, design, and print their own customized cards right at home.
The Most Popular Christmas Card of All Time
Debuting in 1977, one particular greeting card quickly took hold as the bestselling Christmas card design of all time.
Hallmark artist Ruth Morehead designed the angelic Three Little Angels artwork that depicts a trio of adorable cherubs. Unlike seasonal cards that come and go with each passing year, ‘Three Little Angels’ was so popular that it was sent over 36 million times in its first two decades of production. According to Hallmark’s director of creative writing, Kristin Riott, “Cuteness and God together are unbeatable.”
Christmas Cards Today
Technology advancements in recent decades are making Christmas cards a little less popular. Social media platforms make it easier to stay connected with friends and family all over the world, and face-to-face video conferencing helps form meaningful connections, especially around the holidays.
Along with Mother’s Day, Christmas cards are still the most popular season for card-buying, card making, & sending, with over 1.5 billion individual & boxed cards purchased every year.
Janet and Will’s Skylar Drake Mystery Series
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I thought it would be fun to look back at the popular toys given for the holidays during the 1960s. This research brought back a flood of memories as both receiving them for gifts and buying them for the younger ones in my family. Hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane, also.
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In the 1950s, Spade Cooley was a beloved national treasure and one of the greatest stars of Western swing. But he soon became famous for something very different when he suspected his wife of having an affair and beat her to death.
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The First Christmas Card John Callcott Horsley designed the world’s first commercially produced Christmas card for Sir Henry Cole in 1843. Cole was part of the elite social circle in Victorian England. During the holiday season of 1843, having too many friends caused Cole much anxiety. The old custom in England of sending Christmas and […]
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The genre of novels that seems to endure are the spy thrillers and stories of behind-the-scenes government scandals. Here are some very interesting and I’d even say, “watershed” novels about the cold war that have colored our vision of the past and the future. After researching some, I’ve made a list of just a few of the more influential titles and included a short synopsis of each:
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Partners in Crime, Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger write the Skylar Drake Mysteries, hard-boiled detective stories set in the 1950s.
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