Design Crafters

Year in and year out, no matter what the “fashions” of the year, did you know that there’s at least one holiday season staple that has been around for nearly 165 years? It’s probably not photos with Santa or waiting in line to start shopping on “Black Friday,” so what do you suppose it could be?  Answer: the Christmas card .  History tells us that Sir Henry Cole — then-director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England – commissioned an artist to create a card that he could send to his friends for Christmas.  What inspired Sir Henry to think up the idea in the first place?  He realized that he was too busy to write a holiday letter to each and every one of his friends as he had previous Christmases.  And so the Christmas card came into being, sort of a happy accident, don’t you think?

As innovative and clever new things often do, the cards managed to cause an uproar back in 1843.  Not just over the brilliant idea of the cards itself, but because the image on the front of Sir Henry’s card was of a family enjoying their holiday dinner while a child enjoyed a sip of wine.  Many were outraged and newspapers and ministers alike decided that Sir Henry’s cards were “fostering moral corruption in children” with the image on the front.  Nonetheless, the idea of Christmas cards took off in popularity almost immediately. 

For the first few years (or even decades), Christmas cards with religious themes were the only ones available to Victorian consumers, but it didn’t take long for other Christmas card themes to appear on the market.   Nowadays, of course, you can find a Christmas card in just about any theme or motif you could dream up:  nature, with family photos, corporate, patriotic, humorous, sports-themed, luxurious, classic, cartoon characters, and of course featuring Santa Claus in his many forms. So don’t forget to raise a cup of eggnog to toast Sir Henry’s brilliant idea this winter….and then get back to sending out your own version of the Christmas card (hopefully scandal-free).

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