Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Christmas Cards (11/06/08)
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TITLE: Origin of the Christmas Card | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mildred Sheldon
11/12/08 -
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When I don’t know answers to questions, I instantly turn on my computer and google it. Whoever came up with google was a genius as far as I am concerned. I find all kind of interesting information on this old computer. My computer is old and it underlines all words that are not in its databank such as google. We are constantly coming up with new words and changing the meanings of old words.
I learned that the first formal card was designed by and Englishman, John Callcott Horsley, in 1843. John created it for his friend Sir Henry Cole. It was a lithograph on stiff cardboard, 5 1/8 by 3 ¼ inches, in dark sepia and hand-colored. In the middle of the card was depicted a party of grownups and children with glasses of wine raised in a toast over the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you. On one side of the card was a scene of the hungry being fed and the other side it showed the poor being clothed. One thousand were printed, and John Washbourn and his wife sent one to James Peters, his wife and family. The house of John Washbourn at 22 Theberton Street in Islington, London still survives.
It is interesting to me how one man came up with the idea of Christmas cards and according to Hallmark Cards, the all-time favorite sentiment on cards today is the one John wrote back in 1843. The first is still the best.
The custom of sending Christmas cards caught on and the exchange of Christmas cards has grown exponentially. Can you imagine that Americans typically exchange over 2 billion cards each year? I cannot even being to fathom that amount of cards being sent to people. Who would have thought that one man’s idea of sending cards to family and friends would become so popular?
My Christmas card list seems to grow with each passing year. My favorite card depicts the birth of Christ because to me that is the one and only reason to celebrate Christmas. We have gotten away from Christ being the reason for the season. Christmas has become so commercialized that Christ is no longer the reason we celebrate that day. Cards come with many different scenes. They depict Santa, his sleigh pulled with eight tiny reindeer and a bag that never runs out of gifts.
The Christmas card created by John Horsley in my opinion represents the true meaning of Christmas. The center of the card depicting a gathering of family and friends reminds me of the wedding feast Christ and His disciples were invited to in Cana of Galilee where Christ turned the water into wine found in John 2:3-11. The sides of the card remind me of Matthew 25:34-40 NIV which reads as follows: “Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? “The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brother of mine, you did for me.”
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