Perhaps, we should credit an early case of holiday stress. Maybe, we could find the roots in manners and social customs of the day that dictated personal correspondence at every turn. Most likely, it was simply an idea whose time had come.
But when Henry Cole hired John Calcott Horsley to design a card he could send to all his acquaintances, the two men had no idea they were launching a tradition that would impact billions of people through the decades.
In 1843, Cole — the founder of London's Victoria and Albert museum and a prominent man of his day (he was sometimes called "Old King" Cole) — wanted to send Christmas greetings to his friends and also encourage them to help the destitute at the holiday season. But he had so many friends and associates that a personal letter to each would have consumed all his time and then some.
So Cole went to Horsley and asked him to design a card that could go out under Cole's name. Horsley was a well-known artist of his day, known for both his art and his moral stands. (For one thing, he was sometimes called Clothes-Horsley because he decried the painting of nudes.)
The card he designed featured a center panel showing a happy family enjoying a festive moment, sipping wine and toasting those who were not there. Side panels showed people helping the less fortunate. The message was simple: "A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year To You." The Christmas card was born.
History doesn't record whether it motivated Cole's friends to perform acts of kindness — but the card was no sooner sent than some people began to criticize it for encouraging alcoholism and drunkenness.
Cole apparently did not send any cards the next year, but the idea did not go away. In 1862, printer Charles Goodall began printing simple Merry Christmas designs on cards and later adding robins and holly.
Ten years later, according to Emotions Greeting Card Museum, the first newspaper articles appeared asserting that "the deluge of cards was delaying legitimate correspondence." And by 1873, the Times ran an ad in its personal column from a person apologizing "for not sending Christmas cards this year."
Louis Prang, a German immigrant, is credited with bringing the idea of Christmas cards to America. According to Hallmark, he printed a card in 1875 that showed Killarney roses and the greeting "Merry Christmas." By 1881, Prang was producing more than 5 million cards a year.
Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.
Greeting card companies never looked back. Nowadays, Christmas is the largest card-sending occasion in the United States, according to American Greetings. Industrywide, 60 percent of all holiday cards that are sent go out for Christmas.
A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive for the Greeting Card Association found that Christmas cards are still very popular. The rise of electronic communication as well as economic considerations may have cut into the volume somewhat, but Americans will send around 1.9 billion holiday cards this year.
According to the survey, 51 percent of U.S. adults who purchase greeting cards will send up to 25 of them; 26 percent will send 26-50 cards; and another 14 percent will send more than 50 cards.
A Hallmark survey found that 90 percent say they will send Christmas cards this year. That's second only to giving gifts (97 percent) and ahead of decorating the home (85 percent) and a tree (81 percent) as far as traditions go.
Nearly three-fourths of the respondents said they send cards "because they know how good it feels when they receive a holiday greeting." Another 69 percent said they send cards to stay connected with family and friends.
Another trend noted by American Greetings is that sales of religious Christmas cards are on the rise. And because Christmas and Hanukkah both fall in December this year, humorous and traditional cards cross-referencing the two holidays are becoming more popular.
Designs and messages continue to change with the times. One thing that Edith Menna has noticed about early cards is how few contain what we consider Christmas symbols. Menna, curator at the International Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, which has a small collection of Victorian cards, notes that early cards show things like flowers and birds and children. "Eggs were a popular symbol of birth; you see a card with a nest of eggs."
Many of the cards in the museum's collection were sent out by businesses: Henry Dinwoody's Furniture, Carpets and Wallpaper; Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Association; the Grant Soap Co. Some came from other places: the Iowa Candy Co., Household Sewing Machine Co. of Providence, R.I.
A card from Clark's Mill-End Best Spool Co. features hidden objects that start with letters that spell out the name of the company. One from J.K. Prugh and Co.'s Fine China is one of the few that feature a Christmas symbol. It has a Father Christmas figure dangling a little puppet and proclaims "Here He Is!"
Postcards — which sold for a penny — became a popular way to convey Christmas greetings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and can often be found at antique stores, such as Ken Sanders Rare Books. A postcard sent in 1910, for example, offers "Hearty Christmas Wishes" surrounded by holly and berries. Another card mailed in 1912 shows a red-dressed Santa driving his team of reindeer and carrying a bag full of goodies.
Also popular in Victorian times were cards that unfolded to reveal even more decorations, or that contained some kind of "trick" — strings or levers you could pull to expose more details of the card.
But if the designs and trappings of the cards have changed in the past 161 years, much of the intent and purpose have not. And greetings from early cards are still apropos today. "A happy Christmas! A bright New Year" says a card that is part of a series of reproductions of early cards the DUP has created (10 cards and envelopes for $5, available at the museum). And, says another: "May all enjoy this festal holiday, And for the time, put care and toil away; Have open heart and hand, each friend to cheer; A happy Christmas and a bright New Year."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com