The History of Christmas Cards

By Terrie Todd

In December, 1611, England’s King James I and his son, Prince Henry Frederick, received a hand-made card from someone named Michael Maier. The message said, “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 joy and fortune, we enter into the new auspicious year 1612.”

The card was not discovered until 1979, in the Scottish Records Office, by Adam McLean, but the date makes it the oldest known Christmas card ever sent.

Fast forward over two hundred years to 1843. Sir Henry Cole got a brilliant idea. Three years earlier, he’d introduced the Penny Post—a scheme whereby letters could be mailed for a penny each. Now, he commissioned John Callcott Horsley of London to create a design for what would become the first commercially printed Christmas card. The central image portrays a family raising a toast. On either side are depicted acts of charity. Cole had 2,050 cards printed that year and they sold for a shilling each.

Cole's card. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3095682

The tradition began to take off, although cards did not display Christmas or winter scenes so much as flowers and signs of spring.

By 1874, the lithograph firm Prang and Mayer began selling Christmas cards in America, earning Prang the nickname, “Father of the American Christmas Card.” By the 1880s, Prang’s production had reached over five million elaborate, Victorian-style cards a year. By this time, the cards displayed nativity scenes, Christmas trees, and winter wonderlands, creating a job market for artists.

A Victorian-style card from 1885. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4340233

In 1913, Joyce Hall and her brother Rollie established the Hallmark Cards company and strove to meet the demand for more personalized cards for every occasion. During the war years, Christmas cards began to take on patriotic themes and Hallmark produced cards specifically for sending to soldiers.

President Johnson’s 1967 White House Christmas Card, By Robert Laessig, commissioned by the Johnson Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46951492

Along the way, the Family Newsletter became a tradition for many. Often tucked into a Christmas card, the author would include an annual update on the lives of family members for friends who may not connect from one December to another. With the advent of email, the sending of eCards and electronic newsletters has become a much less expensive way to accomplish this goal. Modern methods, however, will never replace the long string of colorful Christmas cards displayed across windows or around Christmas trees, nor can technology duplicate the nostalgia those cards evoke.

Terrie is the award-winning author of eight historical and two split-time novels, many of which have won Word Awards through The Word Guild. Her 2023 release, April’s Promise, was a finalist in the ACFW Carol Awards. She lives with her husband, Jon, on the Canadian prairies.

“Todd (Even If We Cry) delivers a pulse-pounding tale of survival at sea during WWII. Withdrawn 41-year-old piano teacher Mary Cornish is an unlikely candidate for wartime heroics, but when her reverend encourages her to apply for a program seeking adults to accompany children out of war-torn England to Canada, she finds unexpected purpose in the task. Fans of Historical Fiction will be rapt." (Publisher's Weekly Review)

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