If you surf the vacation cards stuffing your mailbox today , you ’ll probably rule photograph of smiling families , serene woodland view , or evergreen plant trees wrap up with scintillate lights . But if you received a Christmas card in the later 19th century , there ’s a good chance you ’d get yourself expect at an image of a dead chick .
consort to Hallmark , about1.3 billion Christmas cardsare sent each year . We have the Victorians to give thanks for kick back off the tradition of sending a seasonal card , though vacation greetings have change quite a bit over the century . The 1 that were sent in Britain in the tardy 1800s were often much dreary than those we exchange today ; in fact , some of the designs weredownright creepy .
Who Sent the First Christmas Card?
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Until the 1840s , post cards of any form by post in Britain was n’t common , simply because it was too expensive . That changed with the intro ofthe Penny Postin 1840 , which decreed that any letter weigh under half an snow leopard could be sent for the cost of a unmarried centime .
It was a huge boon for the postal service — and it also made spreading some vacation cheerfulness easier , as sending carte to mark especial seasons and consequence had become much more affordable . Thefirst commercial Christmas cardwas subsequently designed byJohn Calcott Horsleyand send byHenry Colein 1843 . It feature a well-chosen family gathered around a mesa , illustrated above the subject matter “ A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you . ”
It was the kind of joyful look-alike you ’d typically expect with a vacation greeting . Some sort of Christmas batting order double were as democratic in Victorian times as they are today — in addition to that initial happy menage , there was also a fair ploughshare of wag displaying classic heartwarming scenes , like adorable beast and snowmen . But as the bauble of being capable to post Christmas cards step by step endure off , hoi polloi began to thirstiness fora wider rangeof mental imagery .
Why Victorians Sent Creepy Christmas Cards
This conduce to Victorian Christmas placard that come out more unsettling to the modern eye . hoi polloi send out and received ones that showed , among other odd pictures , the aftermath ofone toad frog murdering another , a plate of dead birds , and humans emerging from the breadbasket of creepy snowmen . Also feature were outre picture of animals , fruits , and vegetables , such assinister walk potatoesand Christmas dinner party ingredients trip the light fantastic toe to the euphony ofa fiddle - playing rabbit .
In addition to the vapourous gaud of it all , metier attention also fiddle a purpose in the variety of unconventional Christmas board . Some newspapers ran reviews of each time of year ’s designs , in the way that films might be survey today , which increased the urging for house decorator to create ever moreunusual imageryin club to be competitive .
The gloomy nature of some of the images also ruminate dispute between Victorian value and those of today . The cellular inclusion of icon ofdead robinsis unsettling for us , but for people of that era , it was meant to signify a good luck ritual that was sometimes performed : To celebrate St. Stephen ’s Day ( the day after Christmas ) , people would kill a minor hoot , often either a robin or a jenny wren . Sendingthose imagesof the deceased beasts was actually destine to bestow honorable fortune .
Those more strange Victorian Christmas card may be off - putting today , but they seize a snapshot of history . If anything , they ’re a reminder to be grateful that your annual batch of holiday greetings does n’t include any incubus - induce imagination .
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