Corporate Christmas Cards

So who is Henry Cole ?

January 17, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

The First Company Christmas Card

I suppose there is no better place to start than the beginning and the history books trace the beginning of christmas cards to 1843.  To me that does’nt sound an awful long time ago because in the western world the birth of christ has been celebrated on the 25th of December since around AD350.  Mind you that is not to say that people did not use other ways to spred seasonal cheer and for many years up until 1843 people used to send seasonal wishes and greetings by letter.  It took a wealthy businessman, Sir Henry Cole, to commission the first commercial christmas card.

Sir Henry Cole, founder of the Victoria & Albert Museum commissioned his friend, John Callcott Horsley (brother-in-law of Isambard Kingdom Brunel), to design the card which was about the size of a postcard and depicted a jolly get of a traditional English family together with a banner with the message “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”.  The same favourite greeting that is used on most of todays company christmas cards.

Printing technology has come a long way in the last 150 years but there is something I quite like about this first christmas card.   I am not quite sure what it is but I sure I will be revisiting this post and the image above as the blog evolves.

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  1. Pingback by The Most Expensive Christmas Card Bought : Company Christmas Cards on 6 July 2008:

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