Before we go into what i promise will be a dark and weird look at christmas cards let s start from the beginning. What s strange about the history of christmas cards is that they start as valentine s cards says greg jenner.
Bizarre And Creepy Vintage Christmas Cards From The Victorian Era
Bored panda has gone through an expansive tuckdb ephemera s vintage holiday greetings postcard collection to gather some of the most bizarre postcards ever made.
Strange victorian christmas cards. Believe it or not this tradition was all planned by a postmaster hoping to raise holiday revenue. In the 19th century before festive christmas cards became the norm victorians put a darkly humorous and twisted spin on their seasonal greetings. No i must be thinking of victorian christmas cards.
Before treacly hallmark greetings shultz s schmaltzy peanutsgang and novelty naughty santas became the norm creepy victorian christmas cards featured devils grotesque snowmen homicidal frogs goats and a lotof dead birds. Some of the more popular subjects included. Or at least since 2017 years ago.
If you think holidays are weird these days then you clearly haven t seen these 19th century victorian era christmas cards that were just as creepy as those times themselves. Yes the victorians also enjoyed cute children happy snowmen and jolly santas in their christmas ephemera. Victorians had some odd habits one of which was to send each other christmas cards which were to put it mildly a little weird.
Something that s been celebrated since time immemorial. The history of creepy victorian christmas cards colton kruse december 23 2019 even with the proliferation of cell phones and electronic mail it s estimated that more than two billion christmas cards will be sent through the mail this year. Because i collect vintage ephemera as well as sell it and use it to make reproduction items i ve long been fond of cataloging some of the odder victorian cards.
However back in the 19th century victorians thought nothing. Bizarre victorian christmas cards believe it or not. The creepy christmas cards the victorians loved christmas cards in 2015 might carry a cheery norwegian fir or a cheeky santa but wind back the clock by 150 years and you ll find festive missives with an altogether more unusual flavour.
Victorian christmas cards delivered dark holiday humor nothing says happy holidays like a frog stabbing a fellow frog and escaping with what looks like a bag of loot. Anthropomorphic cats murderous frogs and insects dancing by the moonlight aren t exactly part of our christmas card tradition today. The strange unsettling christmas cards of the victorian era saturday december 22 2018 written by chris we like to think of christmas as an old tradition.
Christmas cards originated with the victorians in the nineteenth century and unless you ve seen some of the early cards before there s no way you could accurately picture what they looked like.
