First, a note about the inescapable, ceaseless passing of time: I started to write this post, and I just knew I’d covered this topic before. But when? Where? (There’s history in this post, I promise. Feel free to scroll down.)
The answer, my friends, was all the way back in 2019 before the world caught fire (literally, if you recall.) I wrote about it when this was just a Mailchimp newsletter sent to, like, eight people. I wrote about it again the following year, deep in the throes of the Covid lockdowns, for work. So much has changed, that Dootsie probably wouldn’t even recognize this one. Wow.
ANYWHO, I am firmly in support of holiday greeting cards. To me, they’re a nonzero part of what makes the holidays magical. The way these cheerful little notes trickle in throughout December. I set them out to serve as supplemental décor. I always save a few to help me remember that magic next year when I unbox all my winter stuff.
I think one thing that often halts people from sending cards – aside from expense and time, which are obviously big barriers – is the way some people become very transactional about this little social exchange. Some people take note of who didn’t send them a card, often letting that far outweigh their appreciation for who did.
Personally, I’m an erratic card sender. Some years, I have it in me to make a long list of everyone I want to wish well or thank and write them all a loving little note. Some years, I give cards to my coworkers and say screw it. Since I started The Holiday Thing, I’ve always tried to send each of you a card – and I haven’t always succeeded at that, even when it was just eight of you!
Want a Card?
As always, I’m going to offer to send cards. I’m sending physical cards and eCards this year. I also have international stamps, so no worries there!
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The History of Christmas Cards
The first Christmas card on record was sent to James I of England and his son in 1611. The greeting, laid out to form a rose:
A greeting on the birthday of the Sacred King, to the most worshipful and energetic lord and most eminent James, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and Defender of the true faith, with a gesture of joyful celebration of the Birthday of the Lord, in most joyand fortune, we enter into the new auspicious year 1612
While certainly other Christmas cards were sent, it didn’t really take off until – wanna guess? – the Victorian era. The first commercially available card (pictured above) was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in 1843. Why on earth did he do that? Well, Cole helped introduce the Penny Post three years prior. He was out to make his own project a success! The first printing of the card totaled 2,050 cards, sold at a shilling each.
You might notice that the card looked a bit raucous for Victorian England. The two panels on the side are meant to represent charity, but the center features a fairly merry party. There was some noise made about all the drinking, but really, the early Christmas cards generally didn’t feature religious or serious themes. It was often animals, flowers and fun.
“Official” Christmas cards were a tradition started by – wanna guess again? – Queen Victoria. She commissioned portraits to share significant family events that had happened throughout the year (so, in many ways, she was the originator of the Family Newsletter.) This tradition didn’t catch on with US officials until FDR started sending cards to the White House staff. Eisenhower issued the first official White House Christmas card.
Lithograph company Prang and Meyer helped introduce greeting cards to America in 1874, and they took off right away – by the 1880s, the firm was producing over five million cards a year.
A little card company was founded in 1913 to offer more personalized greeting cards. The outbreak of WWI drove demand for this type of card. The company’s founders also introduced modern wrapping paper to the market; they got the idea when they ran out of tissue paper and began wrapping presents with French envelope lining paper. Thanks to their ingenuity, we now have an entire cable channel dedicated to sappy, melodramatic cheese (it’s Hallmark, if you didn’t catch that.)
Today, over a billion cards are sent during the holiday season, of all shapes, sizes, styles and sentiments. Not bad!