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Category Archives: Greeting Cards
The First Christmas Card
Today, we send millions of Christmas cards every year. But in fact the Christmas card is a relatively modern invention.
In the Middle Ages, European wood engravers produced prints with religious themes. But the first real Christmas card, as we understand the term today, was designed in London, England in 1840. It went on sale in 1843. The designer was John Callcott Horsley, a well known British painter and member of the Royal Academy. He designed the card at the suggestion of his friend Sir Henry Cole, who was the first director of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Horsley produced 1,000 cards and offered them for sale at 1s (one shilling) each. They were printed on stiff card and coloured by hand, with the greeting: “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You”. The card shows three pictures: in the centre, a family party; to one side the hungry receiving food; to the other side the poor being clothed. Puritans immediately denounced the card, since it showed people drinking in the family party. But with most people the idea was a great success and the Christmas card quickly became very popular.
Christmas cards were not the first greetings cards. Since 1796, with improvements in printing, merchants had been sending cards to their customers offering “best wishes” for the new year. In many countries, Christmas cards gradually became even more popular than New Year’s cards.
As Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ, cards often show scenes of His nativity. Others show images associated with Christmas such as wintry scenes of snow-laden pines, Father Christmas (Santa Claus), stars, candles or holly. The traditional greeting written on a Christmas card is “Merry Christmas”, but many other greetings are also used, such as “Happy Xmas” or “Happy Noel”.
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Apple’s New Card App Launches November 12
If you want quick, easy convenience to send a physical, printed card from your computer but don’t want to pay $2.99 or $4.99 that Apple is charging, check out this http://www.getgreetingcards.com
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History Of Greeting Cards
Ever wonder where greeting cards came from? Yes, the kind you buy from Hallmark and send your dad for Father’s Day. Believe it or not, these nifty pieces of paper have a longer history than you would think. See if you knew these greeting card facts.
Cards’ Origins:
• In the early 1400’s (before Columbus sailed the ocean blue) paper greeting cards were given to friends and family in Europe.
• In Germany, greeting card makers used wood for these unique creations.
• The first Valentine’s Day card was exchanged in 1415, but didn’t gain notoriety until the Penny Press era (mid 1800’s).
• The first Christmas greeting card given during the holidays was in England1843.
Greeting Cards in the US:
• A Boston lithograph owner named Lois Prang is given credit for inventing the first American greeting card.
• After WWI, the printing industry took off and greeting cards improved in style and quality.
• Greeting cards were given to soldiers overseas fighting during WWII. Talk about patriotic!
• In the 1980’s, cards were printed for many holidays and expressions. Forget finding only major holiday cards in stores. Greeting cards such as “Thank You” and “Saying Hello” flourished.
• Nearly 8 billion greeting cards are sold each year, hiking in revenue for greeting card companies.
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