It always snows on Christmas cards (mostly)

A friend of mine phoned me at the end of October and told me that 2 inches of snow had fallen overnight. "It looks just like Christmas" she said. This amused me a lot because we very rarely have snow at Christmas here in England. What she meant was that it looked just like Christmas when it is depicted on 90% of Christmas cards.

I have a confession... I never throw away Christmas cards. They are so pretty and packed with so many memories it would feel like throwing away Christmas itself. My mother kept all her cards as well and so now I have many thousands (hers and mine) all sitting in bags and all labelled with the appropriate date. Most of them depict snow.

Apparently our fixation for snow at Christmas can be blamed on Charles Dickens. His Pickwick Papers describing jolly rosy-cheeked gentlemen sitting atop stage coaches that bumped along the icy lanes of Victorian England have become engraved on our memories. Above is a small example of 1970s cards that illustrate the point!

We've seen the film and (maybe) read the book by Dickens' about miserly Mr Scrooge. He abhorred Christmas but after much ghostly persuasion relented and discovered the happiness a family Christmas can bring. Christmas Carol is a story that has left its mark on us all since the mid 1800s. The card above (now in the V & A Museum) dates from that time. A real Dickensian family Christmas!

I have a scrap book containing several dozen cards dating from the early 1900s and amazingly the style is very different. Pastel shades and pretty flowers predominate.

Pictures of pansies like this were enormously popular

Summer scenes with bluebirds bringing happy messages are popular as well. But by the 1920s the pastel pretties had disappeared and cheery seasonal scenes were back in fashion.

 
For me the only bird I like to see on a Christmas card is a robin (perched on a snowy twig of course). Dickensian sentiment and lots of red and green have always said 'Christmas' to me.

But I'm wondering if styles are beginning to change as well over half the cards I received last year were predominantly blue in colour (sample above). I'm not sure that blue has the same Christmasy feel as traditional red and green. But after all it's the thought that counts and as long as there's plenty of snow I'm happy!

Comments

[Redwood House]

Hi Eli,
what a beautiful collection of Christmas Cards you have, how wonderful to still have your mothers. I too love to see the Christmas Robin on cards they are such a pretty little bird we have several that come to the garden and I love to watch them. Talking of cards I still need to finish writing ours. We seem to get them earlier every year I like to leave mine until quite close to Christmas.
Stay cosy...
Jan

[carolyn]

You have some beautiful Christmas cards and also a lovely blog.
Thank you for visiting me and leaving nice comments.I tried to leave you a comment before but for some reason I couldn't.
I bet it is beautiful in England at Christmas.
Take care,
Carolyn

[Clarice]

Those are some pretty amazing cards, I would not get rid of them either. Clarice

[Suzanne]

What a beauty of a collection Eli! Here in the States blue is very popular for depicting Christmas. I need to reread the Pickwick Papers, I have the BBC production my daughter gave me for Christmas a few years ago but nothing is ever as good as the book:-)

[kim]

What a lovely collection of Christmas cards, I am just like you and loathe to get rid of any that have been sent to me! My daughter is doing a Christmas Carol for her school play tomorrow and is very excited!
Kimx

[Paula]

Dear Eli,

What a lovely post, as always! I enjoyed seeing all the pretty Christmas cards and reading about them. You know how I love your Robin, so those are my favorites too! I think it is wonderful you and your mother have save all of your Christmas cards! I love Dickens and A Christmas Carol is one of our favorites. I have it in paperback, but a couple of months ago I was thrilled to find it in a lovely little hardback, it must be very old as there was no date on it and it looks old, you know how old books just have that look! The cover is gold and has a little picture on it. If you enlarge the photo of my Christmas decorations, next to the bears, you will be able to see it lying there. Thank you again for all you shared!
Love, Paula

[Jayne]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who keeps all her cards! Don't you think that too many of today's cards depict very un-Christmassy scenes?

[Susan]

I have all my Christmas cards from the past 18 years. What do you do with yours? I want to find something useful to do with them (other than making gift tags).