The Story of Christmas Cards
How did the tradition of giving out Christmas cards even begin? Well,
Collectors Weekly proclaims that over in Britain in 1843, a rich man named Sir Henry Cole, had a terrible problem. It seemed he had so many people to send a greeting to that he couldn't possibly hand write them all. So being a man of wealth, he had a card made showing charity to the poor. He then sent that out to all on his list. And there you have it, the Christmas card was born.
Christmas cards, along with all other holidays and even including the postcard form has always intrigued me. Being as I have a love for arts and almost everything vintage anyway. And as many people already know, I am an avid auction goer. All consisting of auction houses, estate sales, and storage units. Seems like whenever I hear an auctioneer bellowing out those jibber jabbish words, my blood gets to pumping. And I'm there!
Well, since it is so close to Christmas I thought I'd share a good ole' auction find here with you. In one of the last estate auctions I went to this past summer, I bought a couple boxes of old books. My husband loves them and has bookcases full. So I always try to buy them when I can. Well, when going through them at home, I discovered that one of the "books" was not actually a book at all. It was a fake book. A fake book that was like a mini safe. Really cool, let me tell you. I couldn't wait to slide it out of the fake book case it was in and see what was inside. And when I did, I found oodles of old love letters. And lots of keepsake post cards & vintage Christmas cards.
So I have scanned some of the vintage Christmas cards that I found in that sale to share here. Going by the postmark, all the ones below are from the early 1900's. Enjoy!
I also collect postcards of my hometown. It's a cool way to see how it was before I was around.
Notes of Interest:
Collectors Weekly says, "The most sought after vintage Christmas postcards are those featuring Santa Claus dressed in a color other than red – such as purple, green, yellow or orange."
That is cool! I have never saw Santa in a purple outfit before. Have you?
Do you collect vintage holiday cards or postcards? If so, what holiday is your favorite?
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