Christmas cards, phone calls and the charm of the past

Who hasn't seen them, the colourfully decorated cards that are sent all over the world for Christmas and New Year's? Greetings to loved ones, congratulations for the coming twelve months, a few bank notes as a gift: sending a card by post guarantees a cheerful feeling on the part of the recipient. Christmas cards also make eyes sparkle outside the family: for 75 years, the proceeds from the sale of UNICEF cards during Advent have been donated to work for children.

But where does the handwritten tradition actually come from? The very first Christmas card was commissioned by Englishman Sir Henry Cole in 1843. The card with the family scene and the inscription "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" was printed 1,000 times and coloured by hand before being sent to Cole's acquaintances. The traditional Christmas greetings as we know them today became really popular from the 1930s onwards, thanks to the commercialisation by the American Joyce Hall, who would later head the world's largest greeting card manufacturer and distributor Hallmark.