We received our first Christmas card of the season yesterday—from a friend I’ve known since childhood. I know the world is right when her card arrives in the mail. I realize in this day and age many people no longer mail Christmas cards and some send them electronically, but count me as old-fashioned, I still love sending and receiving Christmas cards.
We have many vintage holiday cards at the Museum and sorting through them recently made me wonder how the custom of sending Christmas cards began.
According to Smithsonian Magazine there had long been an English custom of sending Christmas and New Year’s letters to friends. In 1843, Henry Cole, the founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, found himself with stacks of holiday letters that he knew he didn’t have time to answer. There were simply too many and yet it was considered very rude to not respond. Cole had a “light bulb” moment that rescued him from his situation. He asked an artist friend to design a 5 1/8” x 3 1/4” illustration (postcard size) featuring a family celebrating the holidays together in the middle of the drawing, flanked by pictures of people helping the needy on either side. At the top was a “To:” line and at the bottom a “From:” line with a greeting of “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You” below the family picture. Cole had 1000 copies printed on cardboard and his problem was solved. With the “Penny Post” mail system, the English could send a card or letter anywhere in England for a penny. Christmas postcards remained a popular way to send holiday greetings well into the 20th century. We have many from the first three decades of the 1900’s in our museum collection.
The first Christmas postcard in the United States is believed to have been created by a Prussian immigrant, Louis Prang, at his print shop in Boston in 1875. His card was different from Cole’s because it didn’t have Christmas images on it. Instead it featured a flower. The name Prang might ring a bell with you because today the Prang company still produces quality art supplies. Many of the first American Christmas cards were like Prang’s and featured nature scenes and animals with a simple ‘Merry Christmas” message.
“So when did the bookstyle Christmas cards I’m used to have their beginning?”, you ask. It all started when the Hall Brothers of Kansas City formed a greeting card company in 1915, later called themselves the Hallmark Company, and introduced a new kind of Christmas card. It was 4” wide and 6” high, folded once, and mailed in an envelope. Sound familiar? It seemed that many Americans wanted more space for writing than a postcard allowed, but didn’t have the time or desire to write full-blown letters. From the 1930s to the 1950s Hallmark Christmas cards were incredibly popular. To keep up with the demand, Hallmark procured famous artists like Grandma Moses and Norman Rockwell to create cards for the company.
In 1962, due to public clamor, the U.S. Post Office issued its first Christmas stamp, green and white with a wreath and two candles. That year one billion Christmas stamps were printed and as we know, they are still popular today. Before the issuing of Christmas stamps, many people put a Christmas Seal on their Christmas postcards and envelopes as a way to contribute to the fight against tuberculosis, but it had no postal value and a stamp was still needed. Many of our vintage Christmas postcards at the Museum have a Christmas Seal placed next to the actual postage.
Back in the early days of West Concord, a pioneer businessman was creating his
own Christmas postcards and we’re fortunate to have some at the museum. Charles Sheils, known as Chas. by friends and family in West Concord, opened the Sheils Brothers General Store in the building most of us knew as Ernie Amundson’s grocery store, where Centennial Park now stands. Born in 1859, Chas. was a classy gentleman who garnered much respect in West Concord and served on the very first West Concord village council. After selling his store to the Amundsons in 1921 he was involved in real estate until his death in 1938. He must have loved drawing because his greeting cards were very detailed and finely etched, as you’ll see in the accompanying picture.
Here is my Christmas wish for you, straight from one of our vintage cards attributed to Clifton Bingham, English poet and songwriter of the lane 19th century:
“A Christmas merry, a Christmas bright,
So runs the wish of my heart tonight,
With hope and happiness by your side
To gladden and bless your Christmastide.”
Merry Christmas to all!
