Christmas in the past

Homemade Christmas cards in early 1900s Britain

Extracted from the memoirs of the webmaster's mother(1906-2002) and edited by the webmaster with further research

There is nothing in my mother's written recollections about sending or making Christmas cards, and although I gather from the internet that they were known in England since the 1500s, they were then extemely rare. By my mother's childhood in the early 1900s, I understand that they were akin to status symbols and sent among the wealthier classes. I would certainly imagine my mother's family refusing to pay for postage on as many cards as we send today. I say 'today'. In my experience the use of Christmas cards is actually dying out now as greetings by text seem to be the norm.

I know that school children were required to send a letter to their parents. An example of such a Christmas letter is on another page and seems primarily to justify the work of the school teacher - but no hand-made Christmas card.

The reason why I have bothered with this page is because of the following extremely poignant home-made Christmas card that has come my way and is worth sharing.

A poignant home-made 1914 Christmas card for the soldiers at the front in World War One, looking forward to the sunrise of better times to come in 1915. If only that had been true.

This 1914, World War One, hand-made Christmas card is so poignant as to merit a place here. The original is held in the family of Anne Davey.

At the time postage was cheap in real terms as it was the only realistic means that ordinary people had to communicate. Most Christmas cards, where they existed, would have been made by children and hand-delivered to families and friends living in the same area.

If you can add anything to this page or provide a photo, I would be pleased if you would contact me.

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sources: early 20th century material      sources: ww2 home front and other material     contact
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