The Christmas Cards' History

Christmas Cards

The Christmas card is without a doubt the most sent greeting of the year. But the Valentine's Day greeting came long before the Christmas card. It can be traced all the way back to the 1400s. The first official Christmas card was first sent in 1843 in England and it depicted a family in a cosy setting drinking wine. The first Christmas cards rarely had Xmas as a theme on the card. Instead they focused on the coming of Spring and showed pictures of flowers, animals and children. The British Royal family also began sending out Christmas cards in the 1840s. Here Queen Victoria focused on the things that had happened in the family the previous year.

The Christmas card quickly became very popular in various circles in Europe and in 1875 the German immigrant Louis Prang started the first series of American Christmas cards. A few years later Prang was producing over 5 million Christmas cards for the USA.

The Christmas card has been a colossal success since then but today the card has undergone a change and there are actually sent fewer and fewer traditional Christmas cards. Instead, people use electronic Christmas cards sent via the internet. Cards sent via cell phones has also replaced many of the traditional Christmas cards. The first Christmas greeting sent by cell phone was sent from the phone company Vodaphone's headquarters in 1993.

Christmas Cards