The sending of Christmas cards, a custom we take for granted today, required that society take several things for granted.

First: that Christmas was celebrated as more than a day to attend church and remember the birth of Christ. Second, the availability of a delivery or mail system making it practical to send personal greetings to more than a select few people. And, third, printing processes that would enable the mass production of cards.

Those three requirements were met first in England in the early 1840s. The first printed Christmas cards were designed by John Calcott Horsley of the Royal Academy by Sir Henry Cole in 1843, and sold at Felix Summerly’s Home Treasury Office; their greeting read, “A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”

In 1846 Christmas cards reached the United States, but it wasn’t until Boston lithographer Louis Prang began designing and marketing them in 1865 that they were produced here.  At first Prang sent his cards to Europe to be sold, where they were in fashion, but by 1875 they had also become popular in the States.

Victorian era Christmas cards in Europe and in the United States were for the wealthy, and were often decorated with silk or feathers, or cut in elaborate patterns. Some “popped up” into religious or snow scenes; others included sentimental landscapes and flowers, children playing with toys, and pine trees. Today Prang’s Christmas cards are prized by collectors.

By the early twentieth century other publishers were producing Christmas cards, and Christmas postcards also became popular.  Less expensive to buy and send, they often featured Santas and the same sentimental scenes as the more expensive cards, and were popular from 1900 until after World War I, when Christmas cards with envelopes became available, and sending Christmas postcards fell out of fashion.

Christmas cards have varied through the years, reflecting different styles, concerns, and printing techniques of the period. Patriotic cards were popular during World War II.  Humorous cards have been popular since the 1950s. Sentimental cards with nostalgic images reprinting Victorian cards are often sent over the holidays. Cards wishing “Peace” were particularly popular during the Vietnam War.

In recent years, with people keeping in touch via computers and telephones increasing,

the number of Christmas cards sent each year is gradually decreasing, as people keep in touch in other ways. But despite that decrease, close to 2 billion Christmas cards are sent in the United States alone each year.
 

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