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The roots or history of Christmas cards is shrouded in controversy. One account is that in 1842, a 16-year-old boy by the name of William Maw Egley engraved the initial card. This card showed a picture of Christmas dinner, skaters, dancers and also the poor receiving gifts. Inside, what it s all about said "A Merry Christmas along with a Happy New Year to you personally." This card still exists today.
The first Christmas greeting will often be credited to Sir Henry Cole, not William Egley, although Egley's card was clearly around in advance of Cole's. In 1843, Sir Henry Cole, the directory of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, commissioned Christmas cards have been illustrated by John Callcott Horsley, a popular artist back then.
The illustration in this one-page stirred controversy for the reason that scene depicted parents as well as a small child sipping glasses of wine, besides the hungry being fed and also the naked being clothed (although these were shown fully dressed). What it s all about, printed at the banner designs in the center of the card, read "A Merry Christmas as well as a Happy New Year to you." One thousand cards were issued by Summerby's Home Treasury Office and were sold for one shilling each. Only 12 of your original 1000 printed still exist today.
Not everyone liked the concept of holiday cards. Some Protestant groups did not approve the strategies till the 1900s. During Cole's time, people complained that the cards were too secular and that they might contribute to children developing poor morals, "alcoholism and intemperance."
Overall, general audiences loved the concept of sending cards at Christmas. In advance, holiday cards were hand delivered by using a calling card. Inside the 1840s, Brits began mailing cards one to the other and by way of the early 1850s, the thought of sending holiday cards had spread to other countries at the European continent.
Unlike our modern holiday cards that feature religious or winter themes, early cards were wholly secular. They had been more prone to show pictures of flowers, fairies as well as other springtime scenes. After a while, pictures of children and animals were put to use. More a collage than the usual card, not less than inside the modern mind-set, these holiday cards were cut in elaborate shapes and fabricated from increasingly ornate materials. One early card, still in existence today, is constructed of 750 individual aspects of material sewn together. Other cards had silk, pearls, frosted glass, tassels, dried flowers along with ornate decorations attached.
The tradition of giving Christmas cards to family and friends did not allow it to be across the pond to America for 17 years. In 1874, German immigrant and lithographer, Louis Prang printed the earliest American holiday cards. The fronts of his cards were decorated with flowers and birds, just like the English spring-themed cards. To start with, he shipped his cards to England because sending cards had not yet visit the States en masse. In 1875, Prang began selling his cards in America.
By 1881, Prang's lithograph shop was producing over five million holiday cards per year. By for vacation, the fronts of those cards started to feature winter scenes, people around fireplaces and babies with toys. Mr. Prang became a stickler for quality craftsmanship. Today his cards are sought after by collectors around the world. Unfortunately for Mr. Prang, other gamers imitated his style and made it possible to make cards more inexpensively, eventually causing him to go out of business.
Over the last 168 years, the Christmas card industry has steadily grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, selling over four million cards per year with American Greetings and Hallmark controlling 80% of the market. Today every tom dick and harry sends about 20 Christmas cards per year. The holiday card tradition is forever embedded in Western cultures.