Getting To Know A Few Facts On The History Of Christmas Cards - By: joalesto

The history of Christmas cards dates back more than a hundred and fifty years ago in England. Richard Armour once implied that no matter how much time you put into the activity of getting holiday cards done and sent, there is always somebody that gets left out. And you can probably relate to this. People like Sir Henry Cole knew how it felt. For any of you who do not know Sir Henry Cole, he founded the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This man had to send a lot of holiday greeting cards that doing them manually was just downright impossible.

Sometime in 1843, the answer came in for Sir Henry as he hired John Calcott Horsley, who he asked to paint a card that showed giving food and clothes to the poor. The picture in the center of the card inspired controversy at that time, and perhaps even up to this time, because it was a display of a cheerful family, with a child, close together and drinking wine whilst enjoying the celebration. As you might have expected, a child on the illustration enjoying wine was not quite a good scene back then and neither would it be today.

Nonetheless, that was the first card with the classic insignia "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." Unexpectedly, Sir Henry did not give or send off the cards, yet the giving of the cards turned out to become a well known tradition.

Kate Greenway, a Victorian children's literature writer and illustrator, joined by Ellen H. Clapsaddle and Frances Brundage designed the holiday cards which became the well desired items in the latter part of the nineteenth century and up to the early twentieth century. The cards they made were fancy with fringes and decorative silk and satin. Some of the cards were fan or crescent shaped, while others were designed to look like bells or birds or candles. There was so much creativity back then and creators even managed to design pop-up cards with miniature mangers.

This culture somehow found its way from England to America, crossing the Atlantic. Americans did import holiday cards coming from England for over thirty long years. Finally, in the year 1875, a German immigrant to the United States, Louis Prang launched a lithographic shop. He made his way into the American market and made the first holiday greeting cards that were commercially released in the United States. But his first creations depicted images not related to the advent season. He had flowers and birds which were totally unconnected to the Christmas season. Prang made massive production in a short time and he was already making over 5 million holiday cards in 1881. Soon yuletide cards started to depict winter scenes, fireplaces, children playing, and Christmas (fir) trees.

The tradition of holiday yuletide cards began with Sir Henry and Louis Prang. Today, the tradition has already spread all over the world. It is a Christian tradition that never became old fashioned. There are many types of cards sold and bought today, from business holiday cards to personalised Christmas cards.

About the Author

Jo is a writer for 'Festive Collection' (http://www.festivecollection.co.uk), the foremost corporate Christmas card assortment of Qubic Print Direct. Festive Collection offers one of the widest variety of custom-made corporate Christmas cards in United Kingdom. If you want to mail to your clients and co-workers these unique and custom-made Christmas cards they'll never forget or if you like to make an extra effort and construct a completely bespoke card, print your own company logo, and signature at a nominal added cost then you ought to take a look at Festive Collection.

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