The Santa Card

This is an abbreviated version of a fuller article which may be found on this site, Seasons Greetings! The History of the Christmas Card.

Credit for designing the Christmas card is given to John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903), a British narrative painter and a Royal Academician. He was a painter who designed the first Christmas card in 1843 for his friend Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum). The first edition of 1000 cards was copied and hand colored and shows a family party and with the legend "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." They were printed in lithography on stiff cardboard, 5 1/8 by 3 1/4 inches. The price was 1s. each. Others quickly followed in England.

Louis Prang (pictured at right), working from his shop in Roxbury, Massachusetts, printed the first American cards in 1875, two years after the penny post card were first authorized by the U.S. Congress. His first design was a simple flower designs with "Merry Christmas."

The one-cent postage quickly spread the use of the post card as a means of communications – as opposed to the three-cent letter. In 1886, two more similar cards followed his red-suited Santa in 1885. One of his 1886 cards featured Santa Claus, and is shown in the thumbnail below.

Santa has remained a popular figure in holiday cards. I hope to post an album of my Santa cards soon. But in the meantime, see:

• Santalady’s Favorite Antique Post Cards
• Victoria.com, An Antique Marketplace

Also see

• Christmastime Celebration
• Gabriella Oldham, ed., Old-Fashioned Christmas Cards (New York: Dover Publications, 1989)
• Suzanne Presley, ed., Old-Fashioned Santa Claus Cards (New York: Dover Publications, 1990)
• Thomas Nast, Thomas Nast Christmas Cards (New York: Dover Publications, 1985)

A highly recommended site is Greg Livaudais, History of Christmas Cards, The Livaudais Family Home Page [Accessed November 2, 2001]. Note from the site:

"The History of Christmas Cards website is based on the findings of Greg Livaudais using his collection and many published sources. All the cards illustrated, except where noted, are cards in the Livaudais Collection. This collection contains over 3,600 Christmas cards dating from 1876 to current. Much of the text on these pages come from the study and analysis of the cards in this collection."