… Victorian Christmas Cards
Commercially produced greeting cards hit the market in 1840, and by the 1860s, they had become very popular. The Christmas cards sent during the Victorian years had a much different sensibility than those we send nowadays. Hyperallergic put together a good selection with many featuring animals doing some unusual things, and I’ve chosen a few of my favourites to share with you. There are more to see at the above link.
Let’s start with a few just plain cute cards.
“A happy Christmas” (1908) (via NYPL) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“In silvery accents, whispering low – A happy, happy Christmastide!” (England, 1880) (courtesy Toronto Public Library) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
An example of one of the first Australian Christmas cards, collected by Bessie Rouse (via Sydney Living Museums) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“Wishing you a Merry Christmas,” featuring a goldfinch, bee, and cricket (via University of Glasgow Library/Flickr) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A happy Christmas to you” (via TuckDB Ephemera) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“Every good wish for your Christmas,” with frogs! (via the Library of Birmingham) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A joyful Christmas to you” (via Derbyshire County Council Record Office) Christmas card, from Hyperallergic
“I have come to greet you” (inside it says: “Loving Christmas greetings, may smiling faces ring around your glowing hearth this Christmas day, may fun and merriment abound, and all your world be glad and gay” (via TuckDB Ephemera) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
And now, a few more unusual cards.
“May Christmas be Merry” (19th-century Christmas card) (via Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
Christmas card by Wilhelm Larsen (1890-92) (via National Library of Norway/Flickr) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“May all jollity ‘lighten’ your Christmas hours” (via Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“Now dance and jump and make good cheer for Christmas comes but once a year” (L. Prang & Co., Boston, 1888)(via Special Collections Department, Postcard Collection, Enoch Pratt Free Library) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
and finally, a few cards that I consider downright frightening.
“A hearty Christmas greeting: Four jovial froggies / a skating would go; / They asked their mamma, / but she’d sternly said, ‘No!’ / And they all came to grief in a beautiful row. / There’s a sweet Christmas moral for one not too slow. / Just so!” (via Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A Merry Christmas to you” (via Horrible Sanity) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A happy Christmas” (via Boston Public Library) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
The red ants have a flag that reads: “The compliments of the season” (via University of Glasgow Library/Flickr) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” (1876) (via National Library of Ireland/Flickr) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“May yours be a Joyful Christmas” (via Tea Tree Gully Library) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“With many merry Christmas greetings” (via TuckDB Ephemera) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
“A Happy Christmas” (1900) (via Missouri History Museum/Wikimedia) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
A Krampus Christmas card (via Tea Tree Gully Library) Christmas Card, from Hyperallergic.
My thanks to Hyperallergic for putting together this interesting assortment of antique Christmas cards. There are a few more to be seen if you click the link.
Some really weird stuff there, but I think the 1950s could be even weirder. Here’s a Christmas card from the Eniwetok Atoll atomic testing site;
https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb2833946m
Some fascinating insights into the damage Xmas does to the human mind. Not that I condone stuffing naughty children into sacks and carting them away but I know where the feeling comes from.
The buck/billy goat seems to have been one popular xmas animal. In Finnish Santa Claus is still Joulupukki (Christmas/Yule Buck).
The frogs seem to have been popular as characters. The Norwegian aquavit-drinking pig-harnessers with their dragonship sleigh are, well, something.
To some of these the only reaction I can muster is:WTF???!?!
And they accuse us of waging a war on Christmas…
I like the goat ones.
So many creepy ones, dead birds, drunk birds with a cat waiting to eat them, a murdered frog, baby heads in flowers, a cracked egg with legs and arms but no head -- that last is the worst for me. The goat head is really good though.