This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Every year, as the holidays approach, millions of us perform a cherished ritual. We sit down with a pen, a stack of cards, and a list of names, sending festive wishes across towns, countries, and continents. The Christmas card is more than just paper; it’s a tangible link to friends and family, a colorful fixture of a global tradition. It feels timeless, as if it’s always been a part of our Christmas celebrations.
But it hasn’t.
This multi-billion dollar industry, this cornerstone of holiday correspondence, all started with one man, one problem, and one simple, revolutionary idea. The story of the first-ever Christmas card isn’t just a piece of holiday trivia. It’s a fascinating look into the ingenuity, social customs, and controversies of Victorian England. It’s a tale of how a time-saving solution for a busy civil servant, combined with new technology and a dash of scandal, accidentally launched a tradition that would conquer the world.
To understand how truly groundbreaking this first card was, we have to travel back to a time before it existed, to a world where sending a Christmas greeting was a much more personal—and time-consuming—affair.
Before the Card: How Victorians Shared Christmas Greetings
In the early 19th century, the idea of a pre-printed, commercial Christmas card didn’t exist. Yet, the desire to connect with loved ones during the festive season was as strong as ever. People relied on more traditional, labor-intensive methods to share their holiday sentiments.
The Art of the Christmas Letter
The primary way to send a Christmas wish to someone far away was through a personal letter. These weren’t quick notes. A proper holiday letter was an art form, often written on decorative paper with meticulous penmanship. The writer would share family news, reflect on the year past, and extend warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
For the educated upper and middle classes, this was a deeply ingrained social duty. But it was also a significant burden. Answering the deluge of holiday letters required hours, even days, of dedicated writing. For prominent individuals with a large social circle, the task could become overwhelming.
Visiting Cards and New Year’s Wishes
Another important custom was the use of visiting cards. Throughout the year, people left these small cards at the homes of friends and acquaintances to mark a social call. Around the holidays, it became common to write a short festive message on them, such as “A Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year.”
While more convenient than a full letter, this practice was limited to people who lived nearby. It was a local custom, not a way to connect with those separated by distance. The sentiment was there, but the medium was constrained.
The Forgotten “Christmas Pieces”
A charming and often-overlooked tradition involved schoolchildren. Students would create “Christmas pieces” to show their parents and guardians the progress they’d made in their studies, particularly in penmanship.
These were large, single sheets of paper, often decorated with elaborate, engraved borders featuring festive or allegorical scenes. In the blank central space, the student would painstakingly write out a Christmas message, a poem, or a short essay in their finest handwriting. It was a demonstration of skill and a heartfelt holiday greeting rolled into one. While these were beautiful keepsakes, they were strictly personal gifts, not items for widespread circulation.
These traditions—the personal letter, the visiting card, and the Christmas piece—all highlight a world that valued handwritten, personal communication. But they also reveal a gap in the market. There was no easy, affordable, and attractive way to send a standardized holiday greeting to a long list of people.
The stage was set for an innovation. All it needed was the right person with the right problem.
The Architect of the Modern Christmas: Sir Henry Cole
The man at the center of our story is Sir Henry Cole. If you’ve never heard of him, you’re not alone, but he was one of the most influential figures in Victorian Britain. Cole was a brilliant civil servant, an inventor, an educator, and a cultural reformer with an almost boundless ambition to improve society through art, industry, and efficiency.
A Visionary Civil Servant
Cole’s resume is staggering. He was instrumental in reforming the British postal system, helping to introduce the Uniform Penny Post in 1840. This revolutionary system allowed a letter weighing up to half an ounce to be sent anywhere in the United Kingdom for a flat rate of one penny, paid by the sender. Before this, postage was complex, expensive, and usually paid by the recipient, making mail a luxury for many. The Penny Post democratized communication, and it would later become the engine that powered the Christmas card industry.
Cole also played a leading role in organizing the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World’s Fair, which showcased the wonders of industry and design from around the globe. He used the profits from this wildly successful event to establish a cultural hub in London that would eventually include the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal College of Art. He was a man who knew how to get things done.
A Mountain of Mail and a Moment of Genius
By the Christmas of 1843, Henry Cole was a very busy and popular man. His extensive network of friends, family, and professional colleagues meant his desk was piled high with holiday letters. According to Victorian etiquette, every letter he received demanded a personal, handwritten reply.
For a man obsessed with efficiency, this annual ritual was a source of frustration. He simply didn’t have the time to compose dozens of unique replies, yet ignoring the letters would be a serious social offense. Cole needed a shortcut. He needed a way to acknowledge all his correspondents with a single, elegant gesture.
He thought about the various forms of correspondence available. A simple visiting card felt too impersonal. A pre-printed letterhead still required a handwritten note. What he envisioned was something new: a single, beautifully illustrated card that could carry a festive greeting to everyone on his list. It would be personal enough to show he cared, yet efficient enough to save him precious time.
He had the idea. Now he needed an artist to bring it to life.
The Artist and the Commission: John Callcott Horsley
For the task, Cole turned to his friend, John Callcott Horsley. Horsley was a respected narrative painter and a member of the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts. He was known for his detailed, sentimental scenes of domestic and historical life, a style perfectly suited for the festive, heartwarming image Cole had in mind.
Bringing the Vision to Life
Cole explained his concept to Horsley: a single piece of stiff cardboard that could be sent to friends and family. It needed to be cheerful, festive, and carry a simple, universal message. Horsley got to work, sketching out a design that would not only fulfill Cole’s request but also capture the spirit of a Victorian Christmas.
The result of their collaboration was a small piece of cardboard, just 5 1/8 by 3 1/4 inches, that would make history. Cole was so pleased with the design that he decided to take it a step further. He commissioned a London printer, Jobbins of Warwick Court, to produce 1,000 copies using the technique of lithography. This wasn’t just for his personal use anymore; he planned to sell the extras to the public. The first commercial Christmas card was about to be born.
Unveiling the First Christmas Card: A Detailed Look at the 1843 Original
The card designed by Horsley is a masterpiece of Victorian sentiment, telling a complete story within its small frame. It’s structured as a triptych, a three-paneled design common in religious art, which immediately gave it a sense of importance and tradition.
The Triptych Design: A Story in Three Parts
The card is divided into three distinct sections, each with its own purpose. The entire scene is framed by a rustic trellis of intertwined vines, a classic symbol of connection and continuity.
The Central Scene: A Toast to Merry Christmases
The largest, central panel depicts a happy, multi-generational family gathered around a dinner table. They are celebrating Christmas in what appears to be a prosperous, middle-class home. An older couple, likely the grandparents, sits at the head of the table while younger adults and children join in the festivities.
In the center of the scene, the family is shown raising their glasses in a toast, their gazes directed outward, as if toasting the recipient of the card. This was a clever and engaging detail, making the person who received the card feel included in the celebration. Below this scene is the simple, now-iconic greeting: “A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU.”
At the top of the card, a small banner includes a space for the sender to personalize the greeting, with the words “TO:” followed by a blank line. At the bottom, another banner reads “FROM:” with a space for the sender’s name. This combination of a printed message and a space for a handwritten signature was a key innovation, blending mass production with a personal touch.
The Side Panels: A Call for Victorian Charity
Flanking the central celebration are two smaller panels depicting acts of Christian charity, a theme deeply important to the Victorian social conscience, famously highlighted in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which was published in the very same week in December 1843.
- The panel on the left shows a group of people feeding the hungry, handing out food to the poor.
- The panel on the right depicts another group clothing the naked, giving garments to the needy.
These scenes of benevolence served a dual purpose. They balanced the personal celebration of the central panel with a reminder of the season’s moral duties. For the Victorians, Christmas was not just about family and feasting; it was also a time for charity and compassion for the less fortunate. Horsley’s design perfectly captured this dual spirit.
The Technology: Lithography and Hand-Coloring
The cards were printed via lithography, a process where an image is drawn with a greasy substance onto a flat stone or metal plate. The stone is then wetted, and ink is applied. The ink sticks only to the greasy drawing, allowing the image to be transferred to paper. This method was ideal for creating the fine lines of Horsley’s intricate design.
After printing in a dark sepia ink, each of the 1,000 cards was then colored by hand by a professional colorist named William Mason. This painstaking process added vibrant reds, blues, and greens to the scene, making each card a small work of art.
The finished product was then sold for one shilling—a not-insignificant price at the time. This was equivalent to a day’s wages for a laborer, making it a luxury item for the wealthy.
Henry Cole had his solution. He had created an elegant, efficient way to send his holiday greetings. But as the cards went on sale to the public, he and Horsley were about to discover that not everyone was filled with Christmas cheer by their creation.
A Festive Greeting or a Public Scandal? The Surprising Controversy
While Cole’s card seems perfectly charming to modern eyes, it sparked a surprising amount of outrage in 1843. The source of the scandal was the central panel: the family toast. More specifically, it was the sight of a small child being given a glass of red wine.
A Toast Too Far for the Temperance Movement
In the 1840s, Britain was in the grip of a powerful Temperance Movement. This influential social crusade fought against the consumption of alcohol, which it blamed for many of society’s ills, including poverty, crime, and moral decay. Groups like the Band of Hope and the United Kingdom Alliance campaigned vigorously for total abstinence.
To these temperance advocates, Horsley’s design was not a scene of innocent family cheer. It was an outrage. They saw it as a deliberate attempt to corrupt children and encourage drunkenness. Critics loudly condemned the card, accusing Cole and Horsley of promoting underage drinking and normalizing a vice that was destroying families across the country.
The controversy was fierce. It’s hard to imagine today, but this small piece of cardboard was debated in public forums and denounced from pulpits. For a man like Henry Cole, who dedicated his life to public improvement, being accused of moral corruption must have been a shock.
The Public’s Mixed Reaction
Beyond the temperance critics, the general public was somewhat lukewarm. The idea of a commercial, pre-printed card was so novel that many people didn’t quite know what to make of it. It struck some as a cold and impersonal substitute for a proper handwritten letter.
The combination of the high price and the public controversy meant that the first Christmas card was not an overnight success. It would take several years for Cole to sell all 1,000 copies. It seemed, for a moment, that his clever idea might be a commercial failure, destined to become a forgotten historical footnote.
The Slow Fuse: Why the Christmas Card Didn’t Take Off Immediately
Despite the initial buzz and controversy, the Christmas card tradition didn’t explode in popularity right away. For nearly two decades after 1843, sending a commercial card remained a niche activity for the wealthy. Several factors contributed to this slow start.
The Shilling Price Tag
The most significant barrier was the cost. At one shilling each, the cards were simply too expensive for the average person. The Penny Post had made sending a letter cheap, but the cost of the card itself was prohibitive. For the price of one of Horsley’s cards, a working-class family could buy a meal.
An Idea Ahead of Its Time
The concept itself was still foreign to many. The tradition of writing personal letters was deeply ingrained, and the idea of sending a mass-produced sentiment felt, to some, like a lazy or insincere shortcut. The social etiquette had not yet caught up with the technology.
The first Christmas card was an idea waiting for its moment. It needed a few key developments to align before it could truly capture the public imagination and become the phenomenon it is today.
The Floodgates Open: How the Christmas Card Became a Global Phenomenon
The seed planted by Henry Cole in 1843 lay dormant for a time, but by the 1860s, conditions were finally right for it to sprout. A perfect storm of technological advancement, social change, and commercial enterprise transformed the Christmas card from a novelty into a necessity.
The Engine of Connection: The Penny Post
The full impact of Cole’s own postal reform was now being felt. With the Penny Post, the infrastructure for mass communication was in place. Anyone could afford to send a greeting anywhere in the country. All that was missing was an equally affordable item to send.
The Colors of Christmas: Advances in Printing
The breakthrough came with advancements in printing technology, particularly chromolithography. This process allowed for the mass production of high-quality color images at a fraction of the cost of hand-coloring.
In the 1860s, printers like Charles Goodall & Son and Marcus Ward & Co. saw the commercial potential that Cole had first explored. They began to produce vast quantities of beautifully printed, colorful cards. They abandoned Horsley’s triptych design in favor of a simpler format, usually a single image on the front with a greeting.
These new cards were not only more vibrant but also much cheaper. Competition between printing firms drove prices down, and soon, a Christmas card could be bought for just a few pence, well within the reach of the working class.
The Victorian Christmas Boom
The mid-19th century also saw the popularization of Christmas itself. Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, championed many of the traditions we now associate with the holiday, such as the Christmas tree and festive family gatherings.
Magazines and newspapers were filled with images of the royal family celebrating Christmas, creating a cultural ideal that the public was eager to emulate. This festive boom created a fertile ground for any product associated with Christmas. Sending and receiving cards became another way to participate in this exciting new version of the holiday.
Competition and Commercialization
By the 1870s, the Christmas card industry was booming. Printers held annual design competitions, attracting talented artists to the trade. The variety of designs exploded. While early cards often featured floral arrangements or scenes of spring (as a sign of hope in midwinter), they soon began to embrace more explicitly festive themes: snowy landscapes, holly and ivy, carol singers, and eventually, Father Christmas.
The post office had to make special preparations to handle the “Christmas card craze,” hiring thousands of temporary workers each December to sort the millions of cards flooding the mail system. Henry Cole’s niche idea had become a national obsession.
The Tradition Crosses the Pond: Louis Prang and the American Christmas Card
The Christmas card tradition soon spread beyond Britain. In the United States, it found its champion in Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant and master printer based in Boston.
In 1874, Prang began producing high-quality Christmas cards for the American market. Like Marcus Ward in Britain, he used the most advanced chromolithography techniques, creating cards with up to 20 or 30 different colors. His cards were renowned for their artistry and beauty, often featuring delicate floral designs, serene landscapes, and charming images of children.
Prang is often called the “father of the American Christmas card.” He not only introduced the tradition to the U.S. but also elevated it to an art form. His success sparked a domestic industry, and by the 1880s, American printers were producing millions of cards each year, solidifying the tradition on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Enduring Legacy of a Simple Piece of Cardboard
From a single commission of 1,000 cards in 1843, a global industry was born. Today, billions of cards are sent around the world each year, a direct legacy of Henry Cole’s solution to his holiday correspondence problem.
From Personal Convenience to Global Industry
The story of the first Christmas card is a perfect example of how a simple innovation can have a profound and lasting impact. It democratized the act of sending holiday greetings, allowing people from all walks of life to connect with their loved ones during the festive season. It created a new form of popular art and provided employment for thousands of artists, writers, printers, and postal workers.
The Evolution of an Art Form
Over the decades, the design of Christmas cards has reflected changing tastes and technologies. From the intricate Victorian designs to the sleek Art Deco styles of the 1920s, the sentimental images of the mid-20th century, and the humorous and photographic cards of today, the Christmas card has been a mirror of our culture.
The Christmas Card in the Digital Age
In the 21st century, the tradition continues to evolve. While the rise of email, social media, and e-cards has led to a decline in the number of physical cards being sent, the tradition is far from dead. For many, the act of choosing, writing, and sending a physical card remains a more meaningful and personal gesture.
The few surviving original 1843 cards are now treasured artifacts. They are among the rarest and most valuable cards in the world, with collectors paying tens of thousands of dollars for a single copy. They are a tangible link to a pivotal moment in holiday history.
Conclusion: More Than Just a Card
The next time you sign a Christmas card, take a moment to think of Sir Henry Cole. Think of his mountain of mail, his frustration with an inefficient system, and the simple, elegant solution he devised.
The first Christmas card was more than just a piece of paper. It was a product of its time—a time of industrial innovation, social reform, and a growing fascination with the magic of Christmas. It brought together art, technology, and commerce, and in doing so, created a tradition that has connected generations of families and friends. It’s a powerful reminder that sometimes, the simplest ideas are the ones that truly change the world.
