Let's Talk: Christmas Traditions
Send Your Very Best
The English-speaking ritual of sending holiday greeting cards dates back to the 1840s and a Scottish printer by the name of Thomas Shorrock, who produced cards featuring a happy face and the caption, “A Gude Year to Ye.” In 1843, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Sir Henry Cole, commissioned a thousand engraved cards depicting acts of charity. This mass production started a tradition that hopped across the continents.
A hundred years later, in 1944, Hallmark Cards built its brand on the slogan, “When You Care Enough to Send Your Very Best.” It was an effective campaign at a time when most American families sent dozens of Christmas cards annually to friends and family far and wide.
With the dawning of the digital age, some have ditched the greeting card tradition while others still cling to it. As you consider your own greetings to those you love, here are some things to contemplate:
Many older people have been sending and receiving physical Christmas cards their whole lives. Even if you only send a few, it might be loving to provide a paper card.
If you’re only sending a few anyway, consider making them yourself or giving your children supplies to create handmade cards.
If you choose not to send Christmas cards, don’t let a blanket social media greeting suffice for those you care about. Reach out with a phone call or meet your friend for coffee. Visit Great Grandma and take her a Poinsettia with a note saying what you appreciate about her.
However you choose to handle Christmas greetings, always care enough to send your very best—yourself!
“Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus” (1 Peter 5:14).
