History Of The Christmas Cards

Ever wonder when and how the Christmas card became about?

The world’s first known Christmas card emerged in 1843 in London when Sir Henry Cole hired painter and illustrator John Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card to send to his friends and acquaintances.

Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant who started a small printing business near Boston in the late 1850’s, is generally considered to be the father of the American Christmas card. In 1875, Prang published his first Christmas cards for his American customers, a simple flower design with the words “Merry Christmas.” The popularity of Prang’s Christmas cards was almost immediate.

In the 1920’s, American Christmas cards were typically hand painted and highly stylized. By the 1950’s, they had turned “modern” reflecting American’s postwar interest in abstract art, the beat generation, cars, and the new medium of TV. For the first time, humorous holidays cards took a measurable foothold in the US.

With the onset of the 21st century, Christmas card sending has divided into two very broad categories: greeting cards that celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, and secular cards.