‘A merry Christmas, dear, from me.’

Abstract

Abstract The photograph, the penny post and the Christmas card made their entrance on the English scene hard on each other's heels, the one in 1839, the next in 1840, and the in 1843. As postal services and printing techniques improved, the Christmas card took its place to the manner born among the cherished traditions of the season. In the early 1860s printing firms began to devote a large part of their attention to the making and designing of cards; the first trickle of greetings exchanged by close friends became a flood, and by January 1880 Punch was complaining of ‘the sleet of Christmas cards’. The novelty had become established. A long article on the history of the cards appeared in the Christmas Supplement of the London Times in 1883, and for some years trom the late 1870s it was usual for the major newspapers and journals to publish a review of each crop of new designs. Competition was fierce, and manufacturers were prepared to try any motif that came to hand, Irom reproductions of the Old Masters to daring flirts on swings and dead robins lying claws up in the snow.