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Christmas cards
The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK by a civil
servant called Sir Henry Cole. Cole worked for the Post Office and had a
friend called John Horsley, who was an artist.
They designed the first card in 1843 and sold them for 1 shilling each,
which was a lot of money in those days and only the rich could afford
them. Speaking of being rich, if you have one of the 1000 original cards
from 1843 you could sell it for thousands of dollars because they’re
very rare these days.
Over time, printing methods improved and not only the rich could send
them. Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in
large numbers from about 1860.
By the early 1900s, the custom of sending cards had spread to other
European countries and it was especially popular in Germany.
The first Christmas cards usually had pictures of the Nativity scene on
them. Other common images included robins (a British bird with a red
breast) and cards with snow scenery, because they reminded people of the
very bad English winters.
Christmas Cards appeared in the United States of America in the late
1840s, but they were very expensive and most people couldn't afford them.
It wasn’t until 1875 that cards started to be mass produced and the
price came down as a result. In 1915, John C. Hall and two of his
brothers created Hallmark Cards, who are still one of the biggest
manufacturers of Christmas cards today!
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