Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards

The English are credited with the invention of the Christmas card and with making it popular during the Victorian era. By the 1860's an entire industry had grown up around the design and production of Christmas Cards in England. The industry spread to other countries quickly and more and more people embraced the Christmas card. The practice of sending Christmas Greeting Cards became one of the Christmas season's most popular customs.

New Year's cards date back to the early years of European printing. The oldest known New Year's card was printed in 1466. They never became very popular. In the late eighteenth century the development of lithographic printing supported an increase in the production of New Year's cards. Valentines cards were already popular in the early nineteenth century when the very first Christmas cards were printed and probably had more influence on the Christmas Cards than the New Year's cards did. Prior to the Christmas cards, some people did send Christmas or New Year's letters.

The first Christmas card was designed by Englishman JC Horsley (1817-1903) in 1843 from the research that I can find. The front of the card shows three separate images. About 1000 copies of the card were printed and they were sold for one shilling each.