Updated April 15, 2024
(December 9, 2022) Each year around this time, friends and families begin mailing their holiday cards. Christmas Card Day on December 9th serves as a reminder to get your stamps, envelopes, and cards together so you can share your holiday cheer.
- 1611 – The first recorded Christmas cards were sent in 1611 by a German physician, Michael Maier, to James I of England. However, the first commercial Christmas cards were sent over 200 years later.
- 1843 – Sir Henry Cole received frequent letters, and it left him little time for other responsibilities. In 1843, he asked his friend J.C. Horsley to illustrate a design he had in mind. Soon, Cole was off to the printer, and he mailed the first Christmas card in the Penny Post to friends, family, and many acquaintances.
- 1874 – Lithograph firm Prang and Mayer started selling their whimsical Christmas cards, often featuring children or cartoon animals, across the pond to America in 1874.
- 1880 – Prang and Mayer were producing a massive five million cards a year.
- 1910 – postcard seller, Joyce Clyde Hall founded the huge greetings card company, Hallmark. He started the business in Kansas, Missouri with two boxes of postcards.
- 1927 – President Calvin Coolidge sent the first official White House Christmas greeting to the nation in 1927, penning a card on White House stationery that was reproduced in newspapers around the country.
- 1962 – The United States Post Office issued its first Christmas Stamp on November 1, 1962. Jim Crawford designed the 4¢ stamp that featured a green wreath and two candles. “Christmas 1962” was written across the bottom on a red banner.
- 1975 – Werner Erhard of San Francisco set a world record for sending 62,824 Christmas cards in December of 1975.
- 1977 – Three angels appear on Hallmark’s most popular card. Two are in prayer and the third looks out of the card at the viewer with big blue eyes. The card originated in 1977 and has sold 34 million copies.
- Around 1,000 were sold at a cost of a shilling each.
- The first Christmas card created had hand drawn images of adults and children raising their wine glasses in a toast. The message underneath the picture was “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.”
- Louis Prang, a German immigrant with a print shop near Boston, is credited with creating the first Christmas card in the United States.
- Prang’s card was a painting of a flower and simply read “Merry Christmas”. This was a more subtle approach that defined the first generation of American Christmas cards. It also made it easier for mass-producing cards, allowing more people to buy them.
- Early Christmas cards were influenced by Valentines and featured “paper lace” designs – embossed and pierced paper. They opened to reveal flowers and religious symbols and were prompted by new printing processes and techniques.
- It wasn’t until the early 20th century that we started to see cards as we know them – with a fold down the middle and an envelope. The Hall Brothers – later Hallmark – created the folded card based on frustrations with the choices available at the time.
- The sending of paper – or analog – cards have been in decline thanks to the rise of social media and the ease with which people can contact each other. Facebook, Snapchat, Whatsapp, emails – they can all take the place of a traditional Christmas card.
- The first official White House Christmas card was issued in 1953 by President Eisenhower.
- 15% of Christmas cards are purchased by men.
- Over 2 billion Christmas cards are sent in the US each year.
- E-cards appeared in the 1990s and are now over 20% of all Christmas Cards.
- Around 500 million e-cards are sent each year.
- The average person receives 20 greeting cards per year (most come at Christmas time).
- The Christmas wreath we see depicted on Christmas Cards is from an ancient Swedish custom. On Saint Lucia’s Day, shortly before Christmas, Swedish girls wear wreaths in their hair. The wreaths are decorated with lights. Saint Lucia’s Day remembers the life of a young girl who was martyred for her religious beliefs.
- Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings are the two most common messages printed on the front of Christmas Cards. Happy New Year is the most common message on the inside
- Seasonal Greeting Card Sales in the USA:
- Christmas 61%
- Valentine’s Day 25%
- Mother’s Day 4%
- Easter 3%
- Father’s Day 2.5%
- Other 4.5%
- Preferred Greetings on Christmas Cards
- Merry Christmas 53%
- Happy Holidays 21%
- Season’s Greetings 12%
- Other 14%
- Click infographic to enlarge
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