Victorian Christmas Cards: Strange or Timeless?

The Beginning

The British businessman and inventor Sir Henry Cole created the first commercial Christmas card. Founding director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Cole was also heavily involved in reforming the British postal system. 

To save time on unanswered mail during the busy festive period, Cole commissioned friend and artist John Callcott Horsley to design a Christmas-themed card. 1000 cards were printed: copies that Cole didn’t use himself were then sold to the public.

In the satire magazine Punch, Horsley earned the nickname “Mr J. C(lothes) Horsley” in reference to his protests against artists using nude models.

While his Christmas card does feature “clothing the naked” as an act of charity, there are no such traces of puritanism in the design. It shows members of the Cole family, including children, sharing a toast as they celebrate the holiday.

Christmas Craze

The price of this card was expensive at the time: a shilling for each copy, which would be a discouraging purchase for many families. But even though Cole’s Christmas card was not commercially successful, it wouldn’t take long for the idea to grow in popularity.

Previously, Christmas and its associated traditions had a contentious history in Britain. It was banned by Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan Parliament in 1647, eventually brought back in 1660. However, by the 1790s, public interest in Christmas was waning.¹

Thankfully, the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published the very same year as Cole’s Christmas card. The ghostly Christmas tale came out on the 19th of December 1843, prompting a renewed appeal in festive traditions.

Christmas—and the act of sending Christmas cards—would soon be back in business!

The Penny Post

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol certainly sparked some much needed enthusiasm for the festive season. But Christmas would truly triumph when traditions became more affordable, allowing the majority of people to then participate in the celebrations.

A combination of factors made Christmas cards more accessible to the public. This included cheaper postage options—such as the Penny Post and, from 1894, the Half Penny Post—as well as improvements in printing techniques. Consequently, sending Christmas cards could be enjoyed by more and more people.

Red Robins

Have you ever wondered why robins are such a dominant image on Christmas cards?

Apart from various religious legends, one possible reason concerns the postal system. During the Victorian era, British postmen were given the nickname “robins.” This was due to their red uniforms being likened to the bird’s red breast.

Nowadays the red robin image has persisted—as ubiquitous a design as that Tiktok trend of a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree.

Breaking: You’ve Got Mail!

Newspapers also reflected the growing popularity of Victorian Christmas cards. In fact, in 1871 a newspaper complained that the amount of cards being sent was delaying business letters.

By 1873, advertisements appeared in newspapers declaring, “Mr & Mrs Blank will NOT be sending cards this year but wish all their friends a Merry Christmas.”²

Furthermore, 1879 is the earliest recorded notice of the Post Office pleading with the public to post their Christmas and New Year cards early.

Back then, posting ‘early’ meant posting by Christmas Eve—a far cry from today’s dates!

Victorian Oddities

You’d be forgiven for thinking that all Victorian Christmas cards depicted cosy, festive scenes. But there are some truly bizarre designs lurking alongside the standard fare of robins and snowy tableaus.

Many cards featured animals—and not just ones you’d typically associate with Christmas. These include, to name but a few: insects, frogs, lobsters, and other sea creatures.

One theory behind animals on Christmas cards involves the publication of a book. Rather than a Dickens tale, however, this concerns the impact Darwin’s On the Origin of Species had on the public consciousness. All life forms were a new source of fascination and intrigue.

Strange Shapes

The Victorians came up with even more strange Christmas card designs to entertain the receiver.

For example, some cards were shaped to imitate some perhaps less than festive items.³ Your pile of Christmas mail could have resembled a five pound note, a bacon slice, an extracted tooth, a luggage label or roast mice.⁴

Timeless Tradition

Technology has advanced dramatically since the Victorian age; we can send our holiday well wishes in the blink of an eye from our phones.

And yet, each December, post offices around the world are kept busy with Christmas cards. Perhaps there’s still something special about receiving a physical card that we don’t want to give up.

By creating Christmas cards, it seems that Victorians have given us a long lasting present: a festive tradition that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.