Written By John Caverhill
“You cannot reach perfection
Though you try however hard to,
There’s always one more friend or so
You should have sent a card to.”
The Christmas rush is certainly not unique to the 21st century or even the 20th century. In 1843 with Christmas approaching, Sir Henry Cole, a museum director in England, dreaded the thought of the dozens of holiday greetings he would have to write to all his friends and business acquaintances. At this time only sheets of paper decorated with Christmas themes, along with space for personally written messages, were available. These were suitable if only a few were needed, but to write dozens required far too much time for a busy man like Sir Henry. Necessity breeds inspiration. Sir Henry commissioned an artist to create a Christmas scene along with an appropriate accompanying message. The result was printed onto cards. All Sir Henry had to do was write the recipient’s name at the top and sign his name at the bottom. He had a thousand cards printed and the extra cards were sold in a local shop for one shilling each. They proved immensely popular and sold quickly. Thus, it was the first Christmas card born.
The passage of the Postage Act three years earlier in 1840 greatly enhanced the cards’ popularity. This act allowed a piece of mail to be sent anywhere in the United Kingdom for only one penny. Also, the development of the steam-powered printing press greatly improved the printing and engraving methods of the nineteenth century.
In 1862, Charles Goodall and Son became the first printing firm to offer a wide choice of Christmas cards to the British public. In North America, until the mid-1870s, all cards were imported from Britain or Europe and were too expensive for common use. A German immigrant Louis Prang, an excellent lithographer, had established a printing business in Boston. During the 1860s, he developed a process he called the ‘chromolithograph technique’. This process used up to 75 colour plates to produce one picture. He introduced his first Christmas cards initially only to the British public. They were an instant success because of their beautiful designs and brilliant colours. In fact, these cards became such a success with the public that a British journalist, noting that the postal service was staggering under the voluminous numbers of Christmas cards, denounced them all as a ‘great social evil’.
In 1875, Prang introduced his cards to the United States. By 1881 nearly five million of his cards were being sold annually across North Ameri ca. Unfortunately, his cards were expensive. By the end of the nineteenth century several imitators, most of them German, had flooded the market with inferior but cheaper cards forcing Prang out of business. World War I caused all German cards to be pulled off North American store shelves and American card makers took over the market.
In 1878, Canada introduced the first Christmas postage stamps to celebrate the inauguration of its Imperial Penny Postal System. Other countries followed suit with the United States introducing its Christmas stamp in 1962.
The Christmas card first appeared in 1843. In 1881, nearly five million cards were sold in North American alone. In that short time period, exchanging Christmas cards became one of the most popular Christmas customs of all time.
