Golf Themed Christmas Cards
Our modern day greeting card can trace its origin to a card printed in December 1843. At Christmas time, Sir Henry Cole, first director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, would hand write greetings and best wishes to family, friends, and acquaintances. He and other well-wishers could buy sheets of paper decorated with Christmas themes or generic holiday cards to which the specific holiday could be added. This got to be a cumbersome task, so he asked a friend to produce a Christmas card with a single message that could be duplicated and sent to all on his list. John Calcott Horsley, an artist friend of Cole and member of the Royal Academy, was commissioned to design the card. He lithographed and hand-colored 1,000 copies of this 'first commercial Christmas card', of which only 12 are known to exist.
The card was three by five inches (8 X 13cm) and depicted three scenes. The center panel portrayed a family of three generations gathered around a table drinking wine with the words "A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU". This expression would become the standard sentiment of the season on Christmas cards. The left panel illustrated feeding the hungry and the right panel was clothing the naked. This caused such a stir with the public that the cards were withdrawn from sale. But the practice of sending cards caught on in England - aided by the passage of the Postal Act of 1840 which allowed a piece of mail to be sent anywhere in the United Kingdom for one penny.
In 1844, another Christmas card was introduced for public sale symbolizing the 'Spirit of Christmas'. This one, produced by W.C.T. Dobson, sold many more than Horsley's card had the year before. The novelty and convenience of Christmas cards began to catch on. As the postal system developed and improved, people liked the idea of sending cards through the mail. With the growth of interest in Christmas cards a new industry was created.
Printed cards became the rage in England; then in Germany. But it required an additional thirty years for Americans to take to the idea. In 1875, Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany began publishing cards and earned the title "father of the American Christmas card." Popularity of cards grew so quickly that by the 1880s sales figures were in the millions.
Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually, just within the United States and Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year. Cards with golf themes have become increasingly popular. Shown here are a number of golf-themed golf Christmas cards reproduced courtesy of the USGA Museum and Archives.
