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The History and Meaning of Christmas Cards
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December 9, 2020Yesterday my husband walked into our house after getting the mail. As I waited for him to say the probable “just junk mail," instead he said, “we got our first Christmas card!" My heart filled with joy. It’s one of those yearly traditions I love. Starting the day after Thanksgiving, there are almost always a few extra envelopes stacked inside of our mailbox. When you are shuffling through the papers and your eye catches a hand-written address, you can almost be sure it’s a Christmas card from a loved one.Over 1.5 billion holiday cards are purchased in America each year. When it comes to Christmas, people often feel a pressure to send out cards. Some go-getters will send theirs out the day after Thanksgiving, while others might call them “Epiphany cards” and send them out in early January. No matter when they are sent, the goal is connection. Not the social media kind that we try to find on the Internet, but connection through something done with our own hands. Something done with care and thoughtfully addressed by hand.So how did this tradition begin? To find our answer, we’ll look back to the nineteenth century and Sir Henry Cole.Cole lived in England and was an elite socialist, art patron, and educator. He is known for his great eye and ability for bringing both art and industry together. He is also the founder of both the Great Exhibition which took place in Hyde Park and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Needless to say, he was very popular. Unlike most of us today, he sent Christmas cards out in order to save time.According to Smithsonian Magazine, Cole was overwhelmed with the number of letters he was receiving from his friends in England, especially with the coming of the winter holidays. The new Penny Post was making it easy and affordable to send letters, and Cole was receiving quite a number of them. While he appreciated his high level status, he didn’t want to take the time to individually reply to his piles of greetings. He also didn’t want to offend anyone by ignoring their thoughtful gesture. His idea was to commission a friend of his, the English painter John Callcott Horsley, to design one card which he could then send out to everyone.
In 1843 he had one-thousand of these triptych Christmas cards printed out. Horsley followed Cole’s instruction and drew up an image of a wealthy family toasting one another in the middle of the card. Then, on each side, there are images of people offering their charity through feeding and clothing the poor. At the bottom the card read “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." The only part Cole had to personalize was to write down who the card was for. It wasn’t long before other important Victorian figures sent out their own Christmas cards as well.With advancing technology and mailing capabilities, this tradition caught traction and became the American norm by the late eighteen hundreds. Christmas cards became a helpful way to foster and maintain relationships with those who no longer lived nearby. The popularization of Christmas cards also did much to encourage the art industry. The Smithsonian writes about how card publishers organized competitions “with cash prizes offered for the best designs. People soon collected Christmas cards...and the new crop each season were reviewed in newspapers, like books or films today."
More simple, modern day Christmas cards began in the 20th century, made popular by the Hall Brothers, now known as Hallmark. Their vice president said that they wanted to create a card that had enough room to write everything you “wanted to say on a postcard” but not too much if “they didn’t want to write a whole letter." I couldn’t help but smile when I read that. Today, the most popular Hallmark Christmas card has sold over thirty-million copies and is still in print today, though originally published in 1977. On it you will see three angels in prayer and the message” God bless you, keep you and love you...at Christmastime and always." And that is really the true Christmas message we hope to send out when we mail our cards each year, isn’t it? We want the person receiving our card to feel wrapped in God’s love.In 2020 the Christmas card isn’t just for those who live far away, it is a helpful way to connect to our loved ones who live nearby but we are not able to see in person. It is also a way to spread the light of Christ.Growing up I always remember my mom intentionally choosing a Christmas card that had a Christian message. We never got the “Happy Holidays” cards or the ones which only depicted images of Santa (unless of course it was an image of Santa kneeling down in worship of Jesus born in the stable). It was important to my mom that we focus our gaze on the true meaning of Christmas and share this with others in our Christmas greetings. The focus being on the celebration of the birth of our Savior. As the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying about Mary, “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sin” (Matthew 1:21). This was the fulfillment of the prophecy made in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, that the virgin’s son would be called Emmanuel meaning “God is with us."Today, I continue that tradition in my own family. When I look for captions on cards I look for ones that will call our heart and mind to the goodness and glory of God. Another way to keep Christ at the center is by including a favorite scripture verse on our cards. No doubt it would be intimidating to knock on someone’s door to tell them about God’s love. Yet you can do so subtly through the way you compose your card. In fact, you can even bring His love to others through the receiving of Christmas cards.A few years ago, my sister shared with me one of the family traditions they had started. After the Christmas season had ended and they took all of their Christmas decorations down, they collected each of their Christmas cards and put them in a box. Then, each night during dinner, they took one out to say a prayer for that family. My husband and I have since started doing that in our own family. There is great power in knowing that someone else is praying for you. It has been amazing how blessed people feel when we let them know that they were included in our prayer intentions that day. It’s also exciting to see how God’s providence works in the timing.This year, as the Christmas season comes to an end for you, whether that be the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th or the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus (Candlemas) on February 2, consider collecting all of your Christmas cards together. Then, day by day, pray that Emmanuel would make Himself known to your loved ones, not only at Christmastime, but always.
Susanna Parent is a freelance writer who begins her mornings brewing French press coffee in the home she shares with her husband and daughter in the Twin Cities. When the sun sets, you’ll find her with friends enjoying a glass of red wine, preferably outside underneath twinkly lights or brainstorming their family’s next new adventure. Her published work can be found at fiatandalily.blogpost.com
