Previously, people had exchanged handwritten holiday greetings. First in person. Then via post. By 1822, homemade Christmas cards had become the bane of the U.S. postal system. That year, the Superintendent of Mails in Washington, D.C., complained of the need to hire sixteen extra mailmen. Fearful of future bottlenecks, he petitioned Congress to limit the exchange of cards by post, concluding, "I don’t know what we’ll do if it keeps on."
Not only did it keep on, but with the marketing of attractive commercial cards the postal burden worsened. The first Christmas card designed for sale was by London artist John Calcott Horsley.
The first Christmas card’s inscription read: "merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." "Merry" was then a spiritual word meaning "blessed," as in "merry old England." Of the original one thousand cards printed for Henry Cole, twelve exist today in private collections.Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually, just within the United States. Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year. Courtesy of Idea Finders.com
Here are a few I really love that can be found in my store Comycgyrl Collectibles.
Vintage Embossed Floral Flower Christmas CardThis is a really neat little card it is about the size of a business card, just a tidge bigger. It says "A Merry Christmas." The flower is a blue and orange and looks like a morning glory.
Wildlife Land Trust Deer Family Snowflakes Christmas CardFront has a Doe and Fawn standing in the middle of a forest Silver Foil border and blue with snowflakes.
Inside reads
Good Friends and Good Tidings to you this Holiday Season.
2 comments:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new background!!!!!! The history of the Christmas card is fascinating - I love knowing the story behind our traditions. Thanks for sharing that with us :)
I do too, its fun to go find out what where and why things started. Makes you glad they did!
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