Christmas Cards

Do you send Christmas cards? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Sometimes, we take pictures, have cards made, sign and even address them, and then forget to mail them. I've found cards years later that were never mailed. One year, we sent a card to an aunt, but somehow didn't get Grandma's card mailed....they are neighbors and it was definitely noticed. I don't know how we manage to get so many things addressed without mailing them, but we do.

It's worse than you probably think. This is a picture of the basket by my front door. The basket of things to mail. It currently contains 7 cards, all awaiting postage. The pizza postcard is a note to a former Sunday School member wishing her well on her upcoming college finals.....her SPRING finals. The yellow, flowery envelope is to our nursery grandma, letting her know we were praying with her about her upcoming medical procedure. Our kids haven't been in the nursery for about a year now. The others are thank you cards. If you haven't received a thank you card from us, well, you can know that you are appreciated and a card was written. I'm pretty strict about making my kids write thank you notes. Even Honor gets to sign all the cards after telling mama what to write......we just never mail them.

I had planned on having Christmas cards made at Snapfish. With a coupon, they only cost $0.23. But we never spruced up for a good picture. I've thought about sending a very informal picture of the kids. It was taken when while we were decorating the tree.

What do you think? If you got this, would you think "Why bother already?" or "She could at least have brushed their hair first?" or "Wow, you can see a tree light shining through Joel's ear?"

What are you sending this year?

The very first Christmas Card was sent in 1843. Here's a picture:

It was attacked for encouraging drunkenness. But investigations were made, and unfortunately, none of the town drunks had received a Christmas card so we are now stuck with the tradition.

We have Sir Henry Cole to thank for the idea of Christmas cards but it was his friend, John Horsley, who created it. The beginning of the whole thing is lost in the fog of time. Horsley is actually quoted as saying Cole "...conceived the idea of an illustrated Birthday (not Xmas especially) card, which...I designed and carried out for him." The card is signed "To His good friend Cole Who's a merry young soul And a merry young soul is he - and may he be for years to come! hoo-ray!" That sounds rather birthday-ish, but it is dated "Xmasse 1843" and carries a Merry Christmas greeting on it.

It is quoted as being the first illustrated card issued, but New Year's cards dated as early as 1703 exist. It does seem that the tradition of sending Birthday and Christmas cards took a boom around 1847, so there is something to it, anyway.

I love the old Christmas Postcards, don't you?


But, while googling vintage Christmas cards, I ran across this disturbing gem:


Years ago, I read about the origins of the Santa Claus celebrations and his little demon side-kick, Krampus. I guess I'd blocked it from memory because the many pictures of this red-tongued guy kind of took me by surprise. Freaky stuff. And people sent them as greeting cards! I'll have to resist the urge to keep googling, we have a busy weekend coming up and I can't go investigating to refresh my memory on early Christmas traditions just yet.

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