My wife, daughter, and grandchild Caleb recently visited a quaint little community of Cedarburg WI in particular a wonderful little shop named “Good Things from the Heart”. If you are ever near Cedarburg, you must see this shop. It is in a decent sized two story Victorian, but it is so chocked full of goodies that my wife says she gets “sensory overload” when she walks through it. I must agree!! There is so much merchandise crammed in that it is difficult to walk through it all and really hard to see everything.

I particularly wanted to visit the Vintage Christmas Decorations displays which were outstanding! I picked up an old fashioned Santa Claus Post Card Ornament which depicts a rosy-cheeked Santa holding an American flag dressed in a red colored gown covered with gold stars. I absolutely love it and can’t wait to place it front and center on our tree in a month or so!

Doing a little research, I found that these type of ornaments can be traced back to England about 150 years ago. Apparently there was a chap named Richard Armour who said that “You cannot reach perfection though you try however hard to there’s always one more friend or so you should have sent a card to.” His friend Sir Henry Cole agreed and realized that it was getting more and more difficult to send out individual Christmas greetings because of the sheer volume of acquaintances that he felt compelled to send them to. After all, as the founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, he had made a large number of friends over the years. He always used the Christmas occasion to remind his friends that it was incumbent upon them to help the poor and destitute especially during the Chrismas holidays.

To meet this challenge, Sir Henry came up with a solution! He commissioned John Calcott Horsley to paint a card that would depict the caring of the poor, feeding and clothing and such. It also displayed on the center panel a happy family embracing one another, sipping wine and enjoying the celebrations. The card however drew instant criticism because it showed a child enjoying a sip of wine which was deemed to be “fostering the moral corruption of children.” The card had printed on it
“A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Holiday cards were designed by Kate Greenway who was the Victorian children’s writer. Most of these cards were quite ornate, many decorated with silk, fringe, and satin. They were cut out in shapes of fans, crescents, and bells, birds, candles and even plum puddings. Some cards were cut out so that as maps or puzzles, they could be fitted together. There were even pop-up cards that when opened became tiny mangers or even skaters.

It took almost 30 years before Louis Sprang, a German emigrant to the U.S. opened a lithographic shop with $250 and published the first series of Christmas cards. His early creations depicted flowers and birds, not particular to Christmas. By 1881, he was producing over 5 million Christmas cards per year. He began to feature snow scenes, fir trees, crackling fireplaces, and children playing with toys. His cards are very collectible today.

A trip to the local Hallmark store yesterday showed just how far we have come with the evolution of Christmas cards. In addition to the other Vintage Christmas Decorations that they have on hand, the variety of cards is truly quite amazing. I particularly like the cards where you can record your own message or where you push a button and a theme from a movie might play. How about cousin Eddie talking about His RV and how he and misses need to spend some quality time alone? (From the Christmas Vacation movie)

Why not start your own traditions and begin collecting Vintage Christmas cards and ornaments? It can make Christmas last all year long!

For more articles like this one and unique Vintage Christmas gifts, visit http://www.vintagechristmasdecorationsblog.com

The Merry Christmas Postcard Storybook