Christmas card trivia

By Linda Cicoira

More than 1.3 billion Christmas cards were sent out to friends, family members, business associates, customers, and love interests in the United States last year, according to numerous sites on the internet.

I used to buy my cards in October as soon as they started to show up on store shelves. I couldn’t wait to get home and retrieve my list from the previous year. I would add some new names and update a few addresses. Then, I would admire my choices, write personal messages on each card, and fill out the envelopes. I remember making a special trip to the post office to choose which stamps I would use.

Then life got busier, or I became lazier, and some people in my contact list were sent e-card greetings. Around 500 million e-cards are reportedly sent each year during the holidays. More years passed, and eventually, I stopped sending Christmas cards. I usually send a thoughtful wish to everyone on Facebook for the holiday.

Do people still send out Christmas letters that tell a story of what their family achieved since the last annual celebration? Those haven’t been delivered to me in more years than I can remember. I haven’t received cute little pictures of other people’s kids in the holiday mail lately either.

We all tend to visit social media to learn about each other. We have become a society of self-made homebodies. Do you attend as many holiday parties as you once did? Does your naughty and nice list include as many people as it did previously? No, and no, for me.

To be taken off a Christmas card list once meant you were in the proverbial doghouse. It was almost as bad as being taken out of the will. For those too young to remember, it is similar to the sad feeling of not being accepted as a friend on social media.

Nearly 50 years ago, Werner Erhard of San Francisco set a world record for sending 62,824 Christmas cards. Wow! I don’t have that many Facebook followers.

There are more than 3,000 greeting card publishers in our country. Eighty-five percent of their customers are women, about the same percentage of those who buy Christmas gifts. Now I’m feeling like a failure.

Despite those figures, Christmas cards were originally penned in England by boys practicing their penmanship. They would present the cards to their parents and receive praise in return.

The first Christmas card in the U.S. was created in 1875 by Louis Prang, a German immigrant who owned a shop in Massachusetts. Prang’s card featured a painting of a flower. Six years later, he printed more than five million Christmas cards annually.

The most popular Christmas card of all time featured three angels. Two were bowed in prayer. The third looks out with big blue eyes and a slightly askew halo. The card reads, “God bless you, keep you, and love you at Christmastime and always.” More than 34 million copies of that card have been sold.

The world’s smallest Christmas card was created in 2017 by the United Kingdom’s National Physical Laboratory. Made of platinum-coated silicon nitride, it is a mere 15 microns. Compare that to a strand of human hair, which is 50 to 80 microns wide.

Early Christmas cards were influenced by Valentines and featured “paper lace” designs. The folded card concept was created by the Hall Brothers, later known as Hallmark. They released their first Christmas card in 1915.

The first official White House Christmas card was issued in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Having launched its first space satellite in January 1958, the U.S. set up a unique communications satellite in December of that year. It featured the recorded voice of Eisenhower expressing the wishes of Americans for peace and goodwill. Yippee!

Christmas card etiquette has some rules to follow. It is best to have cards in the mail by the first week of December or no later than the 12th. This gives recipients at least two weeks to display and appreciate them. If you miss the mailing window, you could opt for a New Year’s Card, according to a greeting card site.