Today the tradition of sending a Christmas card seems so natural to the majority of people. But in fact this pleasant tradition so deeply rooted it our minds is relatively young.

Despite the fact that the distant analogues of greeting cards were used in China more than 1 000 years ago, and then wooden prints with religious themes in the European Middle Ages, the first commercial Christmas and New Year’s card is considered to have been created in London, England in 1830s. That was an Englishman, John Calcott Horsley, who popularized the tradition of sending Christmas greeting cards. At that time Christmas cards showed religious pictures of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story.

The very first card was sold them for 1 shilling (that approximately equals to only 5p today). The card had three panels. The outer two showed people making charity and the centre panel displayed a family having a large Christmas dinner. But some people disliked the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine!

After his initiative of creating special Christmas greeting cards, this idea was popularized by other artists, and finally taken by business men. Charles Goodall & Son, a British publisher of visiting cards was one of the first to mass produce Christmas cards and visiting cards.

The first post service that ordinary people could use was launched in 1840 when the first “Penny Post” public postal deliveries began.

As printing methods improved, and the transport became more reliable and much faster, Christmas cards became much more popular and their production significantly increased by 1860.