It's November and that means it's time to start thinking about this year's Christmas card. I'm still old fashion and like to send out Christmas cards to family and friends.
I like traditional themes for Christmas cards. Since poinsettias are representative of the holiday season, I thought I'd try out a couple of different approaches. For the first one, I tried to give it an antique look. Therefore, I created what looks like an old musical sheet in the background.
For the second one, a much simpler approach was used. I cropped the poinsettia so that the centre would be larger.
We'll be deciding in the next couple of weeks which one to use.
The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the England in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant who was very interested in the new 'Public Post Office' and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.
Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. (That is only 5p or 8 cents today), but in those days it was worth much much more.) The card had three panels. The outer two panels showed people caring for the poor and in the centre panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner! Some people didn't like the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine! About 1000 were printed and sold. They are now very rare and cost thousands of pounds or dollars to buy now!
The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began. Before that, only very rich people could afford to send anything in the post. The new Post Office was able to offer a Penny stamp because new railways were being built. These could carry much more post than the horse and carriage that had been used before. Also, trains could go a lot faster. Cards became even more popular in England when they could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one halfpenny - half the price of an ordinary letter
As printing methods improved, Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers from about 1860. In 1870 the cost of sending a post card, and also Christmas cards, dropped to half a penny. This meant even more people were able to send cards.
Danielle
Both beautiful and why not use both! I like them both in different ways, the top one has great details in the flower petals, and the bottom one is great with the details in the center and the very dark background makes the rest pop.
ReplyDeleteWe're using the top one as the card and the bottom one on the return labels. Thanks for taking the time to comment
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