Why of Course You Should Send Christmas Cards!

Not only did mom send them annually, without fail, she used the ones we received from others as decorations. When I say she decorated with them, I don’t mean just standing them on the mantle. Oh no. You take yarn and string it single ply across the tops of the doorways inside the house. Then, you simply hang the folded cards, as many as would fit, along the string. (I’ve sketched it here below as a visual reference ;-)

The first commercially produced Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley for Sir Henry Cole in 1843. Image from JSTOR.org.

Popularity of the idea spread, naturally.

Before the turn of the century, Louis Prang designed beautiful cards in the United States with chromolithography technology. He became known as the father of the American Christmas card. (You may also recognize the name, Prang, from primary school years listing “Prang watercolors” as the preferred paints for students.)

By 1915, the Hall brothers founded, yes,

you surmised correctly - Hallmark! And well the rest is history, as they say!

Amazingly, according to Hallmark, Americans still send approximately 1.3 billion Christmas cards every year. Many are used as vessels for gift cards. Many are, you dear reader would agree, are photo cards. (You can’t easily hang these on yarn, I might add :-).

So go ahead, my friend! Delight in the amiable task of selecting the perfect card. Take a trip to the post office to buy some Christmas-themed stamps. Gather your list of addresses and your favorite pen. And then, with Christmas music playing softly, and with a cup of eggnog or Earl Grey tea, savor this beautiful, understated moment as you connect pen to paper, person to person, and heart to heart.

Now, of course, these were traditional Christmas cards of varying standard card sizes, that actually folded. Sometimes a picture or two would be enclosed, but they were still traditional cards. You would hang the most beautiful, or most special, or most whatever, because there was never enough room for all the cards (smiles). Now, here I am in 2025 and it’s a good year if I receive 8 - 10, and most of those are flat photo cards…

By the way, did you ever wonder where or how the Christmas card tradition ever began? We’ll begin in 1843.

While dreading the laborious tradition in England of writing letters to loved ones during Christmastime, Sir Henry Cole commissioned London artist John Callcott Horsley to create 1000 engraved cards to send instead.