Christmas Cards

The first Christmas card was sold in 1843 although it was designed in 1840

John Calcott Horsely printed the first Christmas card for Sir Henry Cole who was one of the directors of the Victoria and Albert museum

The card sold over 1000 copies in London

It depicted a small child and a family drinking wine - a controversial subject

In Victorian England postmen were called robins because of their red uniforms. Many cards depict robins delivering cards.

In the 19th Century the British Post Office delivered on Christmas morning

Canada produced the first Christmas stamp in 1898

Louis Prang was the first person to print cards in America in 1875

Queen Victoria was the first person to have an official Christmas card in the 1840s

President Dwight D Eisenhower issued the first official cards from the white house in 1953.

These cards were produced in small numbers at first but now over a million cards are sent from the white house

The British Museum has a collection of Christmas Cards that were collected by Queen Mary

The expression to be cut of a Christmas list means you have fallen out with that person

In Germany in 2004 twenty million scented stamps were given away. They smelt of fir trees, cinnamon, gingerbread, orange, honey wax candle and baked apple