The tradition of Christmas cards and the choking postman!

The picture shows the first card created by J.C. Horsley, who put into design an idea generated by Sir Henry Cole 

The ‘Penny’ post commenced in 1843 in England for the ordinary people so that they could say ‘Hello’ to their relations wherever they lived in the country.

It was Sir Henry Cole a Senior Civil Servant and also a patron of arts, who helped to set up the new ‘Public Record Office’, now known as the Post Office. The thought behind the project was that ordinary people could use it more often. And that is how the Penny stamp originated and then when it became popular he made it half a penny.

In Sri Lanka it is the reverse; the British idiom ‘small profits quick returns’ was their slogan.  

By this time of the year I receive a number of ‘Christmas and New Year Cards from friends I know and living abroad; especially my father’s friends and his business associates.  But, strange as it is, I have not received even one up to now. Even I used to receive pocket diaries, but there have been none thus far. Well I thought everyone was feeling the squeeze even in Britain.

When I inquired from the postman he said “Sir, the rates charged by the postal department is excessive now”. Then I realised that even in foreign countries people are experiencing tough times even to post a letter. Many use digital messages and visuals for this purpose.  But there is nothing better than having a card, place it on your working table and then move it on to another location when you have more than one card. This brings to mind the story in the book ‘Great traditions of Christmas’ and how the Christmas card made its entry into the lives of the people and also spread the message that there is someone out there who remembers you.

Prominent educator and patron of the arts Sir Henry Cole travelled in the company of the elite social circles of early Victorian England. And then misfortune struck him in the form of having too many friends. 

During the holiday season of 1843, those friends were causing Cole much anxiety. The problem came in the form of their letters. There were changes to old customs in England like when celebrating Christmas and New Year using letters. The custom of receiving letters received a new impetus with the recent expansion of the British postal system and the introduction of the ‘Penny Post’. The new stamp allowed the sender to mail the letter or card to anywhere in the country by affixing a penny stamp to the document meant for the recipient. 

Now, everybody was sending letters. Sir Cole—best remembered today as the founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London—was an enthusiastic supporter of the new postal system. He enjoyed being the 1840s equivalent of an A-Lister, but he was a busy man. As he watched the stacks of unanswered correspondence, he fretted over what to do. “In Victorian England, it was considered impolite not to answer mail,” says Ace Collins, author of “Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas”. “He had to figure out a way to respond to all of these people.” 

Sir Cole hit on an ingenious idea. He approached an artist friend, J.C. Horsley, and asked him to sketch an idea that Cole had carved out in his mind. Cole then took Horsley’s illustration which shows a family at the dining table celebrating ‘the Christmas holiday’ flanked by images of people helping the less affluent. He got a thousand copies through a London printer. The image was printed on a piece of stiff cardboard 5 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches in size. At the top of each was the salutation, “TO:.........” allowing Cole to personalise his responses, which included the generic greeting “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You.”

The first Christmas card

Unlike many holiday traditions, can anyone really say who sent the first Christmas fruitcake? We have a generally agreed upon name and date for the beginning of this one. 

But as with today’s brouhahas about Starbucks cups or “Happy Holidays” greetings, it was not without controversy. In their image of the family celebrating, Sir Cole and Horsley had included several young children enjoying what appear to be glasses of wine along with their older siblings and parents. “At the time there was a big temperance movement in England,” Collins says. “So there were some that thought he was encouraging underage drinking.”

The criticism was not enough to blunt what some in Sir Cole’s circle immediately recognised as a good way to save time. Within a few years, several other prominent Victorians had simply copied his and Horsley’s creation and were sending them out at Christmas.

While Sir Cole and Horsley got the credit for the first Christmas card, it took several decades for the Christmas card to become popular, both in Great Britain and the United States. Once it did, the card became an integral part of our holiday celebrations; even as the definition of “the holidays” became more expansive, and now includes not just Christmas and New Year’s, but Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Winter Solstice.

Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant, with a print shop near Boston, is credited with creating the first Christmas card originating in the United States in 1875. It was very different from Sir Cole and Horsley’s of 30 years prior.  In that it didn’t even contain a Christmas or holiday image. The card was a painting of a flower, and it read “Merry Christmas.” This more artistic, subtle approach would categorise this first generation of American Christmas cards.  “They were vivid, beautiful reproductions,” says Collins. “There were very few nativity scenes or depictions of holiday celebrations. You were typically looking at animals, nature and scenes that could have taken place in October or February.”

Appreciation of the quality and the artistry of the cards grew in the late 1800s, spurred in part by competitions organised by card publishers, with cash prizes offered for the best designs. People soon collected Christmas cards like they would collect butterflies or coins, and the new crop each season was reviewed in the newspapers; like it’s done with books or films today.

But how many are able to afford to send a Christmas card today given the high cost for postage? I do not know whether the government realises that the only representative of the state who visits a home every day is the ‘Postman’. Given the high cost of postage, the letters delivered to the house through the representative of the postal department is dwindling.

One of our former heads of state once said that it is only the postal department that sends a government representative to every house daily. These sentiments were made by former President D. B. Wijethunga. He was a former minister in charge of the postal service who later went on to become the president of the country. Wijethunge made this famous comment when he attended a foundation stone laying ceremony at the Postal complex in Kandy. Sadly our much loved postman is choking due to the high cost of postal rates.