Christmas Cards through the Decades

First Christmas Card

Have you ever wondered when Christmas Cards started?  It all started when Sir Cole and J.C. Horsely got together and sketched out a triptych showing a family at a table celebrating the holiday flanked by images of people helping the poor.  At the top of each was the salutation, "To______" allowing Cole to personalize his response which included the generic greeting "A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You."
The first Christmas card originated in the United States in 1875 from Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant who had a print shop near Boston.
The modern Christmas card industry, according to Smithsonian Magazine, began in 1915, when a Kansas City-based fledgling postcard printing company started by Joyce Hall, later to be joined by his brothers Rollie and William, published its first-holiday card. During late 1910s J.C Hall put "hallmark" used by goldsmiths as a marking quality. In 1928, the company began marketing its brand by using the Hallmark name on the back of every card. Hallmark was the first in the greeting card industry to advertise nationally.

(1911)

(1910s)

(1910s)

1913 Unusual Air Balloon

1925 Hallmark Christmas Card

(1920s)

(1920s)

(1920s)

(Late 1920s Early 1930s)

(1930s)

(1930s)

(1930

(1940s)

1940s

(1940s)

(1950s)

(1950s)

Norman Rockwell (1954) Christmas Card

1970s

1980s

1980s

1980s-1990s

1990s

1990s

2000s

2010s

(2010s)

2018

My Favorite decade of Christmas cards is the ones in the late 1800s to 1950s. What is your favorite decade of Christmas cards?

Work Cited

https://corporate.hallmark.com/about/hallmark-cards-company/history/founding-1910s/
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/#bXQGlzPRkmCzrIuJ.99