Design Crafters

Every vote counts, right?  Republican, Democrat, or somewhere in between, no matter which candidate ends up being elected President of the United States this fall, there’s one thing we can be nearly positive about:  the long-standing tradition of White House residents to send out Christmas cards each year will likely be continued. 

If you want to be absolutely precise about it, the first presidential administration to send out official holiday greetings from the White House was the Eisenhower administration in 1953, President Calvin Coolidge wrote out a holiday greeting on White House stationery in 1927 that was published in newspapers across the country.  Since then, the presidential Christmas cards have been sent out each and every year.  It’s estimated that around 2,000 cards were sent out in the first decade of this practice, but in recent years, it’s not unusual for approximately 1.4 million cards to be mailed out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the holidays.  Among the recipients of the presidential Christmas cards members of the Cabinet and Congress, foreign heads of state and government officials, and American ambassadors abroad, as well as countless “ordinary people” (also known as your neighbors and family who are registered voters).

You might be interested to know that there’s a collection of Presidential Christmas cards in the White House archives; from time to time, they are on display for visitors to see.  It’s interesting to see how the card artwork has evolved.  Subject matter of recent White House Christmas cards have featured artwork of, what else? The White House in a wintertime or Christmas setting, or perhaps an interior room of the White House decorated with Christmas trees and other holiday greenery.  In the early years of Presidential holiday greetings, though, photos of the Commander-in-Chief or even simply the Presidential seal appeared on the front of the official White House Christmas cards. Check it out the next time you drop by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

More on Christmas cards on the following:

Believe, Photo Christmas Cards - One of the first photo Christmas cards created by Scrapless Press, Believe features the rich colors of the holidays and your photo in an elegant design. This, and all holiday designs are available as a folding card which allows you to …

Comment on Christmas (er, Holiday) Cards by Sara Hurd - I used to not send them, or would send them late (like a New Year’s card). When I started using SendOutCards, it was a quick import of my contact list, then I created three different cards (Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, …

Season greetings with custom photo cards - Sometimes we bought Christmas cards by the bulk off the shelves, and sometimes we even bought specially crafted cards from charitable organizations. Last year it was my twin nieces who both contributed their own Christmas card designs …

Layered Sunset Tutorial & Christmas Card of the Month - Now, you may be asking yourself, why did Kari title this post as Christmas Card of the Month? Well, I decided that to make it easier to get my Christmas/holiday cards ready that I’m not going to procrastinate this year (okay, …

Christmas Card Sale - Isn’t this card gorgeous? Antique Holy Cards is moving out old Christmas card inventory to make room for the 2008 line. And they have a special offer. It’s August! Which means I’m starting production of a new line of Christmas cards. …