Greeting everyone during Christmas is part of the celebration. Before, people would write letters to greet people in different place. But because of so many people to greet and so much time required to finish the letters, Christmas greeting cards were used so we wouldn’t have to write every greeting we will send to our loved ones.
There are a lot of things associated with Christmas and one of them is the Christmas card. Christmas cards are considered to be part of the celebration because they are used to express gratitude to people like friends, colleagues and loved ones.
In 1843, John Calcott Horsley of London originated the first Christmas card. Sir Henry Cole asked Horsley to paint a card that will show feeding and clothing for the poor and so the latter made the art with the greeting “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You” printed on it. Horsley didn’t have the idea that this would become part of the Christmas tradition even after more than one century. From then on, several cards were made and even considered as works of art because of museums that feature them.
Today may already be different because cards are no longer restricted to be a paper or cardboard that you send through snail mail or something you hand in to your neighbors. With the internet dominating almost every aspect of our lives, Christmas ecards are now widely used because of faster sending and receiving of Christmas messages exchanged by people across the globe.
