According to the Postal Museum in London, England, Christmas cards date back to the Victorian era. It was Queen Victoria who sent the first official Christmas card. However, it was the founding director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Henry Cole, who commissioned and sent the first commercial Christmas card in 1843.
With the expansion of the British postal system in 1840 that included the Penny Post, more and more individuals could afford to send mail. That included the old tradition of sending Christmas and New Year’s letters. A letter could be sent anywhere in the country by affixing a penny stamp to the correspondence, thereafter the practice of sending Christmas letters exploded.
As Christmas mail piled up on Coles’ desk and he toiled to answer the letters (it was considered impolite not to respond to correspondence), Cole had an ingenious idea. Instead of arduously handwriting dozens if not hundreds of letters, why not send a preprinted card containing a holiday image and a generic Christmas greeting?
Cole asked an artist friend, J.C. Horsley, to create a design based on Cole’s idea for a Christmas card. Cole then took Horsley’s illustration to a London printer and had one thousand copies printed. This first card featured a family celebrating Christmas together while drinking, flanked by images of people giving food and clothing to the needy. Below, the phrase "A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU" was inscribed.
It took several decades before the idea of Christmas Cards took off in the United States.
It wasn’t until 1875 that the first Christmas card originating in the United States was printed. It was created by the Boston printer Louis Prang. The card featured a painting of a flower and read “Merry Christmas.” These first cards often featured images of nature and animals, not images depicting Christmas, a holiday celebration or religious themes.
However, in the late 1800s, card publishers began holding design competitions spurring a greater appreciation for Christmas cards. People soon collected Christmas cards like they would butterflies or coins, and the new crop each season were reviewed in newspapers, like books or films today.
According to the Smithsonian, the modern Christmas card has its roots with a Kansas City-based fledgling postcard printing company started by J.C. Hall, later to be joined by his brothers Rollie and William when it published its first holiday card in 1915. The Hall Brothers company, now known as Hallmark, adapted a new format for the cards—4 inches wide, 6 inches high. It could be folded in half and inserted in an envelope. People now would have enough room to write a custom message; not quite a throwback to the Christmas letter of the 1840s. The new “book” format remains the industry standard for holiday greeting cards.
A lot has changed since Henry Cole commissioned the first Christmas card in 1843. Postage no longer costs a penny, a graphic artist isn’t needed to personalize cards, and the popularity of digital Christmas greetings continues to grow. But opening your mailbox to find a heartfelt Christmas card from a dear friend or far away family member still brings a smile to the face of those who read the holiday message.
Whether you buy them, make them, send out e-cards or mail them through the post office, Christmas cards are a time-honored tradition that brings the joy and happiness of the holiday season to all who receive them.