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Christmas Card History

December 20, 2023 By Carol

Hit replay to start: “World’s First Christmas Card.”

Filed Under: Greeting Cards, Holiday, Special Occasions Tagged With: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Henry Cole, holiday greetings, John Horsley, Penny Post, Queen Victoria, The Postal Museum

1st Christmas Card (revisited)

December 24, 2022 By Carol

Before there were printed greeting cards, people sent handwritten messages to each other. In 1843, Henry Cole, a British civil servant and entrepreneur, commissioned John C. Horsley to design the above Christmas card. Sir Henry Cole (as he later became known) was looking for a way ordinary people could use the services of the newly […]

Filed Under: Greeting Cards, Handwriting, Holiday Tagged With: 1834 Poor Law, 1st Christmas Card, Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol, good samaritan, Hungry 40's, Industrial Revolution, John C. Horsley, Penny Post, Queen Victoria's England, Scrooge, Sir Henry Cole, workhou, Yuletide charity

“the Ghost of an idea…”

December 24, 2018 By Carol

  Charles Dickens began writing A Christmas Carol in October 1843. At that time, he was suffering from “a hideous cold,” and was in the midst of a financial crisis.  After five years of economic success, Dickens had overextended his finances, his newer books were not selling as had been anticipated, and he was forced […]

Filed Under: Books, Handwriting, Holiday Tagged With: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Declan Kiely, Ghost of an idea, Ghost of Christmas Present, hungry forties, Morgan Library & Museum, Ragged School, Scrooge, Want and Ignorance

The History of the 1st Christmas Card

December 9, 2017 By Carol

  Before printed cards, people sent handwritten messages to each other. Then in 1843, Henry Cole, a civil servant and entrepreneur, commissioned John C. Horsley to design the above Christmas card. Sir Henry Cole (as he later became known) was looking for a way ordinary people could use the services of the newly established  post […]

Filed Under: Greeting Cards, Holiday Tagged With: 1834 Poor Law, Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol, good samaritan, history of the first Christmas card, Industrial Revolution, John C. Horsley, London's poor, Penny Post, Queen Victoria's England, Scrooge, Sir Henry Cole, The Hungry 40's, workhouses, Yuletide charity

A Christmas Carol

December 22, 2014 By Carol

December 22, 2014   On a recent trip to downtown New Haven, I discovered a marvelous Christmas display of paper cutouts in a variety of shop windows. The best arrangement is in Claire’s Corner Copia, a vegetarian restaurant on the corner of Chapel and College Streets. There I spotted this scene from Dicken’s Christmas Carol. […]

Filed Under: Holiday Tagged With: Chapel and College Streets, Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol, Christmas displays, Claire's Corner Copia, New Haven, Paier College of Art, paper cutouts, vegetarian restaurant

1843

December 17, 2011 By Carol

December 17, 2011 “The first Christmas card was privately printed in London in 1843. As the exchange of Christmas cards grew in popularity, commercial  production became widespread in Europe and America, providing customers with thousands of images from which to choose.” -The Metropolitan Museum of Art Also in 1843, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol which was first […]

Filed Under: Holiday Tagged With: 1843, A Christmas Carol, celebration, Charles Dickens, children, high point, holiday cards, London, making connections, NPR, playful, The Metropolitian Museum of Art, Tiny Tim, true spirit

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