A VICTORIAN STORY

Draw it once,
send it to everyone.

The Christmas card began as a time-saver.

In December 1843 a busy London civil servant asked an artist friend to design one picture he could print, sign and post to everyone. The idea flopped at first, then became one of the best-loved Victorian traditions.

SINCE 1843 a picture and a greeting

Date a card

Hands drawing a holly sprig on a blank folded card at a wooden table, with coloured pencils, a few finished cards and a candle in soft winter light — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

One design, many copies
Cheap post made it work
Printing made it pretty
From one card to millions

THE SHORT ANSWER

Too much post,
one clever card.

Three things came together in the 1840s:
an idea, cheap postage and a new kind of Christmas.

1843

A thousand copies

Henry Cole asked artist John Callcott Horsley for a design, then had a thousand copies printed, each with space for a handwritten greeting.

See the numbers

THE POST

A penny to anywhere

From 1840 the Penny Post let a letter go prepaid with a stamp for just a penny. Before that, the person receiving it often paid, by distance.

Robins and postmen

DRAW YOUR OWN

Back to the start

The first card was a hand-coloured picture of a family raising a toast. A drawn card of your own is close to where the tradition began.

Make one

DATE AN OLD CARD

What does
the card look like?

Victorian Christmas cards changed quickly as printing and postage changed. Pick a feature to see roughly when it belongs. The bar shows how early in the story it comes.

Card dater

Choose a featureSmall single sheet, hand-colouredPaper lace and layersRich colour, metallic ink, shaped edgesOne of a cheap dozenA Christmas postcard

Small single sheet, hand-coloured1840s

The first cards of 1843 and 1848 were printed on single sheets about the size of a visiting card, often hand-coloured.

Paper lace and layersEarly, mid-1800s

Early Christmas cards borrowed from Valentines: embossed and pierced paper lace, with layers that opened to reveal flowers or angels.

Rich colour, metallic ink, shaped edgesAbout 1860 to 1890

The Victorian heyday. Colour printing (chromolithography), metallic inks, fabric and die-cutting made elaborate, shaped cards.

One of a cheap dozenFrom about 1879

Publishers sold a 'penny basket' of around a dozen cards through tobacconists, drapers and toy shops.

A Christmas postcardFrom 1894

The Half Penny Post of 1894 made the cheaper postcard format, both to buy and to send, the most popular.

Source: V&A, The first Christmas card (dates, formats and printing methods described by the museum).

A rough guide from museum collections, not a valuation or a certain date.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

A small print run,
a very big habit.

How many cards Henry Cole printed,
and how many the UK buys today.

1,000

Copies of the first card

Cole commissioned a printer to put Horsley's design onto cards, printing a thousand copies. Sold at a shilling each, it was expensive and judged a commercial flop.

1843 · V&A

≈ 1 billion

Christmas cards bought in the UK each year

The V&A says around a billion Christmas cards are bought in the UK each year. The Postal Museum estimates about 900 million are sent within the UK.

TODAY · V&A

When one of Cole's first cards was auctioned in 2013 it sold for £22,000, according to the V&A, which holds over 30,000 greetings cards, more than half of them for Christmas.

MAKE A CARD THE 1843 WAY

One picture,
a few kind words.

The first card had a simple plan: a central scene, small pictures around it, and a space for each person's name. You can follow the same plan with a pencil.

Draw a central scene
Horsley's card showed three generations of a family raising a toast in a hand-coloured central panel.
Frame it
Around the scene he drew a decorative trellis and small pictures of giving, for a message of celebration and charity.
Borrow a Victorian symbol
Robins, holly, evergreens, snowy landscapes and pillar boxes all became familiar on Victorian cards.
Leave room to write
Cole's cards had spaces for the sender's and recipient's names, so every copy could be personalised by hand.

A red cast-iron pillar box dusted with snow on a village street, with a robin perched on top — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

An antique embossed paper-lace greeting card decorated with a robin and holly, resting on dark velvet beside old envelopes — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

ROBINS AND POSTMEN

Why so many cards
show a robin.

The Postal Museum says Victorian postmen were said to be nicknamed 'Robins' after their bright red jackets and waistcoats, and Anthony Trollope's 1860 novel Framley Parsonage has a character call the postman 'Robin postman'. Others think robins simply suit the season.

Pillar boxes, postmen and mail coaches all appeared on Victorian cards, perhaps because the post itself had become so popular. English Heritage adds that the cracker was another Victorian idea: Tom Smith patented his first in 1847.

Questions

Questions people ask

Who sent the first Christmas card?

Henry Cole, a civil servant who later became the first director of the V&A, sent it in 1843. His friend John Callcott Horsley designed it, and Cole had a thousand copies printed.

What did the first Christmas card show?

A hand-coloured central panel of three generations of the Cole family raising a toast, surrounded by a decorative trellis and black and white scenes of giving. It read 'A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'.

Why did Christmas cards catch on?

The Penny Post of 1840 made sending post cheap, and from the 1860s new printing methods made colourful cards cheaper. By the 1870s and 1880s sending cards was firmly established.

When did Christmas trees become popular in Britain?

The Royal Collection Trust says Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularised the tree after an 1848 Illustrated London News picture showed their family around a decorated tree.

How many Christmas cards are sent now?

Estimates differ. The V&A says around a billion are bought in the UK each year, and the Postal Museum estimates about 900 million are sent within the UK.

Draw it once,
send it to everyone.