The sending of Holiday Cards is a beautiful tradition that dates back to Victorian Era England. We all feel so much joy and warmth when we receive these delightful little glimpses into our friend lives, and we owe it all to a man named Henry Cole.

The 1840s, the Start of Something New

1843 brought a new and less expensive postal service to England, something Cole himself worked to establish. Now costing only a penny to send post anywhere in the land, more and more people were sending Christmas letters to friends and family to wish them well and update them about their lives. 

Being something of an influential man of the era, Cole received quite a few Christmas letters himself and was anxious about how he could answer them all during an already busy season. It was considered a big no-no not to respond to mail at the time, and Cole didn’t want to be thought of poorly. Being a brilliant man, he sought a solution in an artistic friend, John Callcatt Horsley. 

Cole commissioned Horsley to create a drawing of the Cole family gathered at a table, flanked in depictions of charitable acts. Cole then had the picture copied at a well-known London print house, and the rest is history. 

Holiday Cards in the USA

It would be a few more years, 1875 to be exact before it would catch on in the United States. However, it wouldn’t be until WWI that the Hall Brothers (Hallmark) turned it into today’s booming industry. 

What started as a way for one man to address a seemingly insurmountable pile of mail has now taken on a life of its own, with 1.3 Billion cards being sent annually. 

Do you send Holiday Cards? Let us know in the comments below.