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A Christmas card is a greeting card that is decorated in a manner that celebrates Christmas. Typical content ranges from truly Christian symbols such as Nativity scenes and the Star of Bethlehem to purely secular references, sometimes humorous, to seasonal weather or common Christmastime activities like shopping and partying. Christmas cards are exchanged during the Christmas season (around December 25) by many people (including non-Christians) in Western culture and in Japan. Image File history File linksMetadata Julekort. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Julekort. ...
Greeting cards on display at retail. ...
Christmas or Christmas Day is a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. ...
Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ...
A traditional nativity scene from Naples, Italy A nativity scene, also called a crib or crèche (meaning crib or manger in French) generally refers to any depiction of the birth or birthplace of Jesus. ...
Adoration of the Magi, with the star of Bethlehem in the top left. ...
This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ...
December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining for the year. ...
For alternative meanings for The West in the United States, see the U.S. West and American West. ...
Some Christian groups (such as Jehovah's Witnesses), however, disdain the celebration of holidays without explicit Biblical authorization, and so neither celebrate Christmas nor exchange Christmas cards. The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. ...
For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ...
History
 The world's first Christmas card, made by John Callcott Horsley The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London, 1843, and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley. The picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. A batch of 1000 cards was printed and they sold for a shilling each; in December 2005, one of these cards was auctioned for nearly £9000. Image File history File links Firstchristmascard. ...
Image File history File links Firstchristmascard. ...
Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808, Bath – 18 April 1882, London) was a civil servant who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain. ...
John Callcott Horsley (January 29, 1817 - October 18, 1903), English painter, son of William Horsley, the musician, and grand-nephew of Sir Augustus Callcott, was born in London. ...
The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny. ...
Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. In 1875 Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America, though the popularity of his cards led to cheap imitations that eventually drove him from the market. The advent of the postcard spelled the end for elaborate Victorian-style cards, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned. Louis Prang (March 12, 1824 - September 14, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, and publisher. ...
A sample of various postcards. ...
Cards continued to evolve throughout the 20th century with changing tastes and printing techniques. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images are once again popular, and reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. There have been two World Wars, now more commonly known as World War I or First World War (from 1914 to 1918), and World War II or Second World War (from 1939 to 1945). ...
Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...
The Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period 1901 to 1910, the reign of King Edward VII. It is sometimes extended to include the period to the start of World War I in 1914 or even the end of the war in 1918. ...
"Official" Christmas cards began with Queen Victoria in the 1840s. The British royal family's cards are generally portraits reflecting significant personal events of the year. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first official White House card. The cards usually depict White House scenes as rendered by prominent American artists. The number of recipients has snowballed over the decades, from just 2000 in 1961 to 1.4 million in 2005.[1] Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 January 1877, until her death in 1901. ...
Members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping the Colour ceremony Close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom are known by the appellation The Royal Family. ...
Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American soldier and politician. ...
North façade of the White House, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. ...
Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are usually sold in packs of the same or varied designs. A revival of interest in paper crafts, particularly scrapbooking, has raised the status of the homemade card and made available an array of tools for stamping, punching and cutting. Advances in digital photography and printing have provided a more technological way to personalize cards with photos, messages, or clip art. Scrapbooking is a hobby where people compile newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photos, or other memorabilia into decorated albums, or scrapbooks. ...
It has been suggested that Digital photography/Temp be merged into this article or section. ...
Categories: Stub ...
Technology may also be responsible for the decline of the Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004.[2] Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters. Nonetheless, with 1.9 billion cards sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone, they are unlikely to disappear any time soon. E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ...
From the beginning, Christmas cards have been avidly collected. Queen Mary amassed a large collection that is now housed in the British Museum.[3] Specimens from the "golden age" of printing (1840s-1890s) are especially prized and bring in large sums at auctions. Collectors may focus on particular images like Santa Claus, poets, or printing techniques. Mary of Teck Mary of Teck (26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953), later Queen Mary, was the Queen Consort of George V of the United Kingdom. ...
The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...
For other uses, see Santa Claus (disambiguation). ...
The Christmas card list Many people send cards to both close friends and distant acquaintances, potentially making the sending of cards a multi-hour chore in addressing scores or even hundreds of envelopes. The greeting in the card can be personalized but brief, or may include a summary of the year's news. The extreme of this is the Christmas letter (below). Because cards are usually exchanged year after year, the phrase "to be off someone's Christmas card list" is used to indicate a falling out between friends or public figures.
Many businesses, particularly smaller local businesses, also send Christmas cards to the people on their customer lists, as a way to develop general goodwill, retain brand awareness and reinforce social networks. These cards are almost always tasteful, and do not attempt to sell a product, limiting themselves to mentioning the name of the business. The practice harkens back to "trade cards" of the 18th century, an ancestor of the modern Christmas card.[4]
Christmas letters Some people take the annual mass mailing of cards as an opportunity to update everybody with the year's events, and include the so-called "Christmas letter" reporting on the family's doings, sometimes running to multiple printed pages. While a practical notion, Christmas letters meet with a mixed reception; recipients may take it as boring minutiae, bragging, or a combination of the two. Since the letter will be received by both close and distant relatives, there is also the potential for the family members to object to how they are presented to others; an entire episode of Everybody Loves Raymond was built around conflict over the content of just such a letter. Everybody Loves Raymond, sometimes referred to in the abbreviated form Raymond, was a popular and long-running American sitcom that was produced from 1996 to 2005 and broadcast on CBS. The show revolved around the life of Ray Barone, a Newsday sportswriter from Lynbrook, Long Island who lives with his...
Variants on the concept In 2004, the German post office gave away 20 million of free scented stickers, to make Christmas cards smell of a fir Christmas tree, cinnamon, gingerbread, a honey-wax candle, a baked apple and an orange. FIR may stand for: finite impulse response (a property of some digital filters) far infrared, i. ...
A Christmas tree in a Danish home. ...
Binomial name Cinnamomum verum J.Presl Cassia (Indonesian cinnamon) is also commonly called (and sometimes sold as) cinnamon. ...
Gingerbread A gingerbread house A gingerbread house Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake or a cookie in which the predominant flavor is ginger. ...
A jar of honey, shown with a wooden honey server and scones. ...
Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees (beeswax) and used by them in constructing their honeycombs. ...
A collection of lit candles on ornate candlesticks A close-up image of a candle showing the wick and the various regions of the flame. ...
A cooking apple is an apple that is used primarily for cooking rather than eating fresh. ...
Percentages are relative to US RDI values for adults. ...
Charity Many organizations produce special Christmas cards as a fundraising tool; the most famous of these enterprises is probably the UNICEF Christmas card program. UNICEF Logo The United Nations Childrens Fund or UNICEF (Arabic: ; French: ; Spanish: ) was established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946. ...
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