The very first Christmas card was printed in Victorian England in 1843. Sir Henry Cole, who is known for founding the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, had a problem. It was customary at the time to send letters at Christmas to all one’s friends. Because it was considered impolite not to answer a letter, someone with a lot of friends could have a correspondence crisis every December. Sir Cole approached an artist friend, J.C. Horsley, and asked him to sketch out an idea he had in his mind to solve his problem.
Cole took Horsley’s illustration and had 1,000 copies made by a London printer. The image was printed on a piece of stiff cardboard, 5-1/8” X 3-1/4” in size. He included “TO:_____,” allowing Cole to personalize his responses. The card said “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You,” and showed a family celebrating a holiday meal, flanked by two images of people helping those in need. It was the first Christmas card. Eventually, several in Cole’s circle recognized the value of his creation and started sending their own cards at Christmas.
First American Christmas Card
Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant with a print shop near Boston, is credited with printing the first American Christmas Card in 1875. Unlike Cole and Horsley’s holiday inspired design, the first card had a picture of a flower with the greeting “Merry Christmas.” First-generation American card designs were mostly drawn from nature. Animals, flowers, and landscapes were common.
In the late 1800s, collecting Christmas cards became so popular that the new crop each season were reviewed in the newspaper, much like a film today. And of course, they became more creative and elaborate.
Modern Christmas Cards
The modern Christmas card industry began in 1915 when a Kansas City-based postcard printer named Joyce Hall published his first holiday card. Hall, later joined by his brothers Rollie and William, founded the Hall Brothers Company. Ten years later, the company changed its name to Hallmark. They set the industry standard of cheerful sentiments and holiday-inspired images on a booklet style card of 4” X 6,” which was then inserted in an envelope.
This new-style card became enormously popular from the 1930 to the 1950s. As demand for cards grew, Hallmark and its competitors reached out for new ideas to sell them. Commissioning famous artists to design them was one way. Salvador Dali, Grandma Moses and Norman Rockwell all designed Christmas cards for Hallmark.
Stamps & Other Designs
The U.S. Post Office printed their first dedicated Christmas stamp in 1962. It featured a wreath, 2 candles and the words “Christmas, 1962.” They ordered the printing of 350 million of the 4-cent, green and white stamps. They had wildly miscalculated the demand and had to reprint. Unfortunately, they did not have more of the original size paper for a 100-stamp sheet, so the remainder were printed on sheets of 90. Eventually, a total of one billion 1962 Christmas stamps were printed and distributed by the end of the year.
Today, more innovative designs and concepts are coming from niche publishers. As the digital age has exploded, greetings come in many forms like audio and video, as well as on paper. As always though, it is big business!
We have a wonderful selection of Christmas and holiday cards at the MCHS Museum. Stop in soon!