The Family Christmas Card – A Brief History

Ah, the family Christmas card.  We take this tradition for granted, but many don’t know the history of the Christmas card, family newsletters, and portraits.

The tradition actually began when families would simply send short notes around the holidays letting friends and relatives know the tally of children and livestock at the beginning of winter.  Notes were typically short and to the point: “Children: 12 Cows: 4 Pigs: 3..”  Sometimes these were accompanied by short notes such as: “Uncle Jeb looking sickley…”    These notes, referred to as Holiday Reckonings are widely considered to by the fore-runner to the family newsletter or portraits that have become ubiquitous today.

In the early 1900’s the family Christmas card was undergoing a bit of a transformation.  But a little known evolution in the Christmas Card / Family Newsletter was something called card-o-ramas. Described by an early observer  as “a cross between a flip-book, a zoetrope, and a cross-bow”  these devices allowed viewers to look inside and see a primitive animation of holiday activities such as sleigh rides, ice skating, and hobo parades.

Only the wealthiest families could afford to send these extravagant holiday greetings, but the small cadre of tycoons who did send them, saw card-o-ramas as not only the wave of the future, but as time saving necessity.  Banker J. P. Morgan went as far as billing those who sent him standard greeting cards for the holidays saying:  “Time is worth a great deal to a man and mine is worth more than most. Reading holiday clap-trap counts nothing more, in my mind, than a drain on a great national resource.”

Of the card-o-ramas, Morgan had this to say:

“The efficiency with which this device delivers holiday greetings is so great, that I have no doubt it will add not only to national trade, but will bolster trade between nations to such an extent that war will become unprofitable and a thing of the past.”

J. P. Morgan at the annual holiday office party.

Card-o-ramas did not come cheap.  It cost just over $2 to create and send the devices to family and friends which is just over  $1,200 today.  Maybe possible for a man like Morgan, but hardly possible for the average American family of the day.

We hope that you enjoy our modern take on the card-o-rama.  Happy Holidays!