Christmas card

Major type of greeting cards For other uses, see Christmas card (disambiguation). For similar custom in less religious countries, see New Year Card.

Norwegian Christmas card A 19th-century American Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people (including some non-Christians) in Western society and in Asia. The traditional greeting reads "wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". There are innumerable variations on this greeting, many cards expressing more religious sentiment, or containing a poem, prayer, Christmas song lyrics or Biblical verse; others focus on the general holiday season with an all-inclusive "Season's greetings". The first modern Christmas card was by John Calcott Horsley. A Christmas card is generally commercially designed and purchased for the occasion. The content of the design might relate directly to the Christmas narrative with depictions of the Nativity of Jesus, or have Christian symbols such as the Star of Bethlehem or a white dove representing both the Holy Spirit and Peace. Many Christmas cards show Christmas traditions, such as seasonal figures (e.g., Santa Claus, snowmen, and reindeer), objects associated with Christmas such as candles, holly, baubles, and Christmas trees, and Christmastime activities such as shopping, caroling, and partying, or other aspects of the season such as the snow and wildlife of the northern winter. Some secular cards depict nostalgic scenes of the past such as crinolined shoppers in 19th-century streetscapes; others are humorous, particularly in depicting the antics of Santa and his elves.

[edit] The world's first commercially produced Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole in 1843 Children looking at Christmas cards in New York 1910 Christmas card by Louis Prang, showing a group of anthropomorphized frogs parading with banner and band The first known Christmas card was sent by Michael Maier to James I of England and his son Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1611. It was discovered in 1979 by Adam McLean in the Scottish Record Office. It was hand-made and incorporated Rosicrucian imagery, with the words of the greeting – "A 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 joyand fortune, we enter into the new auspicious year 1612" – being laid out to form a rose. The first commercially available card was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole and designed by John Callcott Horsley in London 1843. The central picture showed three generations of a family raising a toast to the card's recipient: on either side were scenes of charity, with food and clothing being given to the poor. Allegedly the image of the family drinking wine together proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each. Early British cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. At Christmas 1873, the lithograph firm Prang and Mayer began creating greeting cards for the popular market in Britain. The firm began selling the Christmas card in America in 1874, thus becoming the first printer to offer cards in America. Its owner, Louis Prang, is sometimes called the "father of the American Christmas card." By the 1880s, Prang was producing over five million cards a year by using the chromolithography process of printmaking. However, the popularity of his cards led to cheap imitations that eventually drove him from the market. The advent of the postcard spelled the end for elaborate Victorian-style cards, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned. The extensive Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection from the Manchester Metropolitan University gathers 32,000 Victorian and Edwardian greeting cards, printed by the major publishers of the day, including Britain's first commercially produced Christmas card. The production of Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The now widely recognized brand Hallmark Cards was established in 1913 by Joyce Hall with the help of brother Rollie Hall to market their self-produced Christmas cards. The Hall brothers capitalized on a growing desire for more personalized greeting cards, and reached critical success when the outbreak of World War I increased demand for cards to send to soldiers. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images have continued in popularity, and, in the 21st century, reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are also sold in packs of the same or varied designs. In recent decades changes in technology may be responsible for the decline of the Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004. Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters – especially given the availability of websites offering free email Christmas cards. Despite the decline, 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. Some card manufacturers now provide E-cards. In the UK, Christmas cards account for almost half of the volume of greeting card sales, with over 668.9 million Christmas cards sold in the 2008 festive period. In mostly non-religious countries (e.g. Czech Republic), the cards are called New Year Cards; they are sent before Christmas and the emphasis (design, texts) is mostly given to the New Year, omitting religious symbols.

[edit] Christmas Market in Nürnberg, lithography from the 19th century Danish Christmas card, 1919 Many people send cards to both close friends and distant acquaintances, potentially making the sending of cards a multi-hour chore in addressing dozens or even hundreds of envelopes. The greeting in the card can be personalized but brief, or may include a summary of the year's news. The extreme of this is the Christmas letter (below). Because cards are usually exchanged year after year, the phrase "to be off someone's Christmas card list" is used to indicate a falling out between friends or public figures.

Christmas letters[edit] Main article: Round-robin letter Some people take the annual mass-mailing of cards as an opportunity to update those they know with the year's events, and include the so-called "Christmas letter" reporting on the family's doings, sometimes running to multiple printed pages. In the UK these are known as round-robin letters. While a practical notion, Christmas letters meet with a mixed reception; recipients may take it as boring minutiae, bragging, or a combination of the two, whereas other people appreciate Christmas letters as more personal than mass-produced cards with a generic missive and an opportunity to "catch up" with the lives of family and friends who are rarely seen or communicated with. Since the letter will be received by both close and distant relatives, there is also the potential for the family members to object to how they are presented to others; an entire episode of Everybody Loves Raymond was built around conflict over the content of just such a letter.

[edit] Christmas card with holly Jacques Hnizdovsky Christmas card During the first 70 years of the 19th century it was common for Christmas and other greeting cards to be recycled by women's service organizations who collected them and removed the pictures, to be pasted into scrap books for the entertainment of children in hospitals, orphanages, kindergartens and missions. With children's picture books becoming cheaper and more readily available, this form of scrap-booking has almost disappeared. Recent concern over the environmental impact of printing, mailing and delivering cards has fueled an increase in e-cards.

The U.K. conservation charity Woodland Trust runs an annual campaign to collect and recycle Christmas cards to raise awareness of recycling and collect donations from corporate sponsors and supporters. All recycled cards help raise money to plant more trees. In the 12 years that the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme has been running, more than 600 million cards have been recycled. This has enabled the Woodland Trust to plant more than 141,000 trees, save over 12,000 tonnes of paper from landfill and stop over 16,000 tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year. The scheme has had celebrity supporters including Jo Brand, Dermot O' Leary and Sean Bean and is the longest running scheme of its type in the country.Christmas card made on a PC

Christmas postcards

American card, c. 1940

War-related, c. 1943

Rust Craft, c. 1950

Snow in the Netherlands

Christmas card

Christmas card Frances Brundage

Merry Christmas card

Christmas card

Christmas tree market

Christmas card with embroidery

Christmas card

Santa Claus clothes

Even as instant messages and e‑cards flood our inboxes, the tactile feel of a printed card still carries a weight that a screen cannot match. The paper surface invites a pause – a moment to run a finger over a handwritten signature, to sense the texture of a foil‑stamped snowflake, to tuck the card into a mantelpiece drawer as a keepsake. This physicality creates a sense of permanence and thoughtfulness, signalling that the sender took time to choose, write and post a token of goodwill. In a world of fleeting digital greetings, the Christmas card offers a small, lasting artefact of the season, bridging generations and preserving family traditions.

Start by deciding the tone you want – cheeky, classic, religious or ultra‑modern – then match that to a design that feels authentic to you. Look for cards printed on recycled or sustainably sourced paper; many UK card-makers now use FSC‑certified stock, which adds an eco‑friendly point without sacrificing quality. Pay attention to the envelope colour and size – a matching envelope can elevate the presentation, while a clear window saves you from re‑addressing. If you’re sending to a mixed list, opt for a neutral "Season's greetings" wording and consider adding a personalised handwritten note; the extra few minutes make the card feel bespoke and improve its shelf‑life as a keepsake.

Many assume that a Christmas card must feature overt symbols like Santa or a nativity scene, but the tradition is far broader. Contemporary cards often showcase abstract winter landscapes, modern typography or even witty puns, proving that the medium is flexible enough to reflect diverse tastes and beliefs. Another myth is that you must send a card to everyone on your address book – the sentiment is more important than the quantity. A carefully curated shortlist of close friends, family and key contacts conveys genuine warmth, while a flood of generic cards can feel perfunctory. Embrace the freedom to tailor both design and recipient list to your own holiday style.