The merry season of Christmas is close by and the Christmas cards fever is slowly gathering momentum.

Vintage Christmas greeting cards have become popular for a while and more unique and dated designs are highly sought after especially by those who attach a sentimental value to antique and vintage prints, photographs and designs. Now more than ever people are beginning to go into the stores asking for a vintage Christmas card.

The vintage christmas card has a theme that takes you back in time, making you reminisce about the glorious past when giving and receiving of beautiful Christmas cards was a thing of pride and duty.

THE VINTAGE CHRISTMAS CARD OF THE 19th CENTURY

According to Wikipedia, "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".

The very first commercially produced Christmas card was in the 19th century, and it was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London, in 1843. The illustration featured on the greeting card was created by John Callcott Horsely, with a sketched illustration of a family merrymaking.

An important part of the 19th century era Christmas spirit was giving out greeting cards to friends, family and business associates. Christmas cards usually very elaborate styled, but rarely showed winter or religious themes.

Early cards favoured themes such as

• Flowers
• Fairies
• Fanciful designs
• Sentimental images of children
• Images of animals
• Elaborate shapes and decoration materials
• Fanciful designs of the coming spring

Many depicted a postman, dressed in red and referred to as Robins'. Cards were delivered  by the British Post Office, early on Christmas morning and cost about 1 shilling.

Commercial greeting cards were introduced into America in 1875 by Louis Prang who became the first printer to produce them. These became highly popular, but the downside of the popularity was the cheap imitations which eventually drove him out of the market.  The advent of the postcard also brought to an end  the overtly elaborate Victorian-style  Christmas greeting cards.

There was a boom throughout the 20th century and it became highly profitable for illustrators and stationary manufacturers. Their vintage designs became unique and was continuously evolving with changing tastes, printing techniques and technology.

During the 2 World Wars, creations and themes bordered on

• patriotic illustrations
• risqué humour
• cartoon graphics  of the 1950's.

Nostalgic images, sentimental pictures, and religious images also continued in popularity.

In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first official White House card. The cards usually depict White House scenes as rendered by prominent American artists of the time.

Now in the 21st century, there has been a heightened interest in Victorian and Edwardian Christmas greeting cards and they are now easy to obtain. The vintage Christmas cards come in packs of the same designs or varied designs.  And even though in recent decades changes in technology has been responsible for the decline of the Christmas card business, Some bespoke card manufacturers such as Hallmark, now provide E-Christmas cards with vintage themes.

Email messages and telephone conversations or text messaging now allow for frequent human communication and contact and things are now made easier for a generation raised without imparting the importance of handwritten letters. We can only blame this on the availability on the world wide web of websites offering free email and e-Christmas cards.

However, despite the decline, nearly 2 billion cards were sent out to friends, family and associates.  And now,  nostalgia of the past and the passion for vintage memorabilia has transformed into a new interest in giving and receiving greeting cards depicting the past era.

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