Christmas History
Christmas cards are part of the more modern revival of Christmas during the 19th century, though if you look it up there are accounts that first recorded Christmas cards were sent by Michael Maier to King James I of England and Henry Ferdrick, the prince of Wales. Our story does take us to the United Kingdom though, to the more modern usage of a such a thing.
A man named Henry Cole had a problem. Sorry, Sir. Henry Cole, he was a well known educator and brushed elbows with the finest people of that century. He wrote books on art and architecture, children's books, was the director of the London Museum, and founder of "Journal of Design".
His problem with all this was that made him a busy man, and he also was well-liked to the point where might have too many friends. 1843, he got letters from friends and associates, a lot of them. Thanks to also modernization of the British postal system, people could send letters much eaiser than before.
Sir Cole, wanted to thank these people for taking time out of their nice 19th century days (of not dying from drinking the water and stuff) and writing him letters. He didn't want to be rude, so he decided to get on working on that. Then he found a thick piece of paper and was interested in it (maybe he went mad for a moment)
He found an artist friend, after being inspired by a school days tradition of giving paper for Christmas to parents with special illustration. His friend was J.C Horsley and he went and asked him to design an idea he had. A family at a table celebrating the holiday, and images of people helping to poor to ensure compassion. Since this was the 1850's and not the 1350's they could also have 1,000 copies made easily on a stiff paper, with a pre-marked "To:____" and a "A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You." wording.
The first card design was slightly controversial, because people finding something to complain about might be older than we think. Anyway, the image had people drinking, even kids. The context and why I mention modern Christmas revival before, is that Christmas had a tough time especially in the UK, puritans didn't like the date, especially since they considered a day people just got drunk . ( It was the 18th and 19th centuries, nothing else to do) But it wasn't enough to dampen things (thanks to no Twitter existing) and the idea caught on, where the next year more cards were printed. The prices were good for anyone to spend to get and a mail.
This wasn't an instant switch to people giving out cards, but they get some good demand within two years. That's Britain, let's check America.
In America, Christmas was still kind of out of tune for most people around this time. It was celebrated in the south, the holiday didn't get any American officalness until 1870. The thing for this story we're talking about Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant to the US, with a print shop. Prang had been doing Christmas cards with his friends and family since 1856, but he hadn't gone as far as trying to sell them. In 1873, he wanted to gain some clients and made some colorful business cards.
He also had been printing art for a few years as well. An English woman asked him if he ever thought of doing Christmas cards. He saw the English market was big, and started printing his own in Boston and exporting them back to England. They eventually started catching on in America, sadly because of less expensive ways to make cards coming around in the 1890's Mr. Prang was put out of business.
Christmas cards were around to stay, eventually the big name in the industry started in 1915 when Joyce Hall and later his brothers: Rollie and William published their first holiday card. Their company later became what you know as Hallmark.
They helped create a new format 4 inches wide, 6 inches high, folded once. Setting a new standard we have today. It also was more a new "book" style format versus the post card look of before.
Christmas cards have been shared by different people of different power levels from Queens and Kings, Presidents ,to the average person. Christmas cards are kind of a special thing for Christmas and even with the internet, they are still being sent.
Sources
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/
"Stories Behind Great Traditions of Christmas" by Ace Collins pages 53-60
That's it for now, please send us cards.
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