Signing a whole stack of Christmas cards can eat up an evening, and by card twenty the handwriting usually starts to slip. Knowing the history of Christmas cards can give you something fun to mention in a few of them. The tradition started with a man in London whose own holiday mail had piled up past the point of answering.
The History of Christmas Cards Starts With One Busy Man in 1843
Henry Cole was a civil servant, an educator, and an inventor. He later became the first director of what’s now the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the early 1840s, he helped set up the Uniform Penny Post. According to the V&A, Christmas was a busy time in the Cole household, and unanswered letters kept piling up. A printed card was his timesaving fix.
Cole asked his friend, the artist John Callcott Horsley, to illustrate the idea. Cole’s diary entry for December 17, 1843, reads, “In the Evg Horsley came & brought his design for Christmas Cards.” That design became the ancestor of the traditional Christmas card people mail today. Cole had a thousand copies printed.
What the First Card Looked Like
Horsley’s design shows three generations of the Cole family raising a toast in a hand-colored center panel. Black and white scenes around it show acts of charity, so the card wished both celebration and giving. On the copy he made for Cole, Horsley drew a tiny self-portrait in the corner instead of signing it. He dated it “Xmasse, 1843.” Cole also sold copies for a shilling each, which was expensive then, and the venture flopped.
How Cheap Postage Turned a Shortcut Into a Habit
Before 1840, mailing a letter in Britain cost more the farther it traveled, and the person receiving it usually paid. The Penny Post replaced that system with one cheap stamp for letters going anywhere in the country. Once that stamp arrived, people started mailing decorated letterheads and visiting cards for the season.
Christmas cards took a while to catch on. Prince Albert was making the decorated Christmas tree popular in Britain during the same decade. Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, the same year as Cole’s card. Publishers also aimed holiday books and keepsakes at a growing middle class.
By the 1870s, Christmas had become a big season for gifts and keepsakes. In 1880, the Postmaster General issued the first “Post early for Christmas” plea, according to archivists at Aberdeen City Council. Then, in 1894, the Half Penny Post made postcard-style greetings cheaper to buy and send. They soon became the most popular format.
Why People Called Victorian Postmen Robins
Victorian postmen wore bright red uniforms, and people nicknamed them “Robins” because of the color. That nickname may explain why robins started showing up on Christmas cards in the first place. Holly and snowy landscapes joined them on Victorian cards, which introduced a lot of the holiday imagery people use today. Robins are a common sight on Christmas cards now, too.
How Color Printing Changed the History of Christmas Cards
Early Christmas cards borrowed a lot from Valentines, with paper lace made from embossed and pierced paper. Some had layers that opened to reveal flowers or angels watching over sleeping children. From about 1860 to 1890, new methods like chromolithography, metallic inks, and die-cutting made cards brighter and more elaborate. Those decades were the Victorian heyday in the history of Christmas cards.
Color printing also brought prices down. By around 1879, a “penny basket” of about a dozen cards was on sale in tobacco shops, drapers, and toy shops. A working family could finally send a bright card to a cousin across the country.
Flowers, Snow Scenes, and an Unfamiliar Santa
Flowers were a favorite on early cards, along with snowy landscapes, cute animals, and children at play. Santa Claus appeared too, though he looked quite different from the round, cheerful figure on modern cards. One card from the 1890s shows Father Christmas riding a bicycle, which was fairly new technology at the time.
Aberdeen’s city archives keep around 250 historic Christmas cards from the late 1800s to the 1980s. One shows children skating on a frozen river. Another shows a little terrier with a red ribbon around its neck, reaching for a present on a Christmas tree. Snowy scenes, one of the Victorian favorites, turn up on plenty of cards today as well.
From Flat Paper to Cards That Stand Up
Cole’s basic formula hasn’t changed much: a printed design, a short greeting, and room for a signature. Today, people in the UK alone buy around a billion Christmas cards each year, according to the V&A. Those Victorian cards with layers that opened were an early cousin of today’s pop-up cards. A modern pop-up can fold out into a 3D tree or a holiday wreath, then fold flat again to fit in an envelope.
Early Christmas cards are also collector’s items now. When one of Cole’s original cards came up for auction in 2013, it sold for £22,000. Cole had charged a shilling for each copy.
Why a Personal Touch Still Counts
Horsley’s self-portrait on Cole’s card shows that even the first printed greeting came with a personal mark. Cole’s cards left room for a handwritten greeting. Plenty of people still add a line in their own handwriting under a printed message. A line in someone’s own hand can feel warmer than printed text, and the psychology of handwritten notes helps explain why. Seeing familiar handwriting on the envelope can tell someone who sent it before they even open it.
Mentioning a trip or a funny moment from the year makes the card about the two of you. Even a short “I still laugh about the snow day” can turn a store-bought card into a keepsake.
Questions About the History of Christmas Cards
When did the second Christmas card come out?
The second known Christmas card came in 1848, designed by the artist William Maw Egley. Like Cole’s card, Egley’s design fit on a single sheet about the size of a visiting card. For years, people thought it came first, because someone misread the date on it as 1842.
Where can you see the first Christmas card today?
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London keeps one of Horsley’s 1843 cards in its national collection of greeting cards. More than half of the collection’s 30,000 cards celebrate Christmas. That makes the museum one of the best places to trace the history of Christmas cards.
How can you tell how old a Christmas card is?
Clues on the card itself can narrow down the date. Paper lace, made by embossing and piercing the paper, points to the Victorian era. Bright chromolithograph colors from about 1860 to 1890 do, too. A printer’s mark on the back, a handwritten date inside, or a postmark on the original envelope can help pin it down further.
Sending a Card With a Little History in It
Cole settled on a printed card with room for one handwritten line, and that format is still standard. A single sentence is enough to make that format feel personal. If you’re signing a stack this year, picking one person and writing them a small story is an easy place to start.
Sources
Victoria and Albert Museum. The First Christmas Card.
Aberdeen City Council. Sending Season’s Greetings.
