13. Dezember • Weihnachtskarten | Christmas Cards

Advent Calendar > 13 December

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The custom of sending Christmas cards began in England in 1843 when Henry Cole (1808-1882) had 1,000 cards printed with the simple message: “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The first Christmas card featured a hand-colored lithographed image (by artist John Callcott Horsley) of a Victorian family enjoying Christmas dinner. In 1874 the custom began in the United States when the German immigrant printer Louis Prang (1824-1909) began publishing multicolored chromolithographic (“chromos”) Weihnachtskarten in Boston.

It was not until the early 1900s that Christmas cards became common in Germany. Before that, as early as the 1870s, it was more common in German-speaking Europe to send New Year’s rather than Christmas cards. Ironically, it was cheap Christmas cards imported from Germany that drove Prang out of the card business in 1890.

Our German Way site offers a selection of digital German Weihnachtskarten that you can send to anyone with an email address. You’ll also find suggested German Christmas greetings if you need some help. - Send a free Weihnachtskarte!

WEB > Louis Prang (Emotionscards.com - English)
WEB > Louis Prang (Wikipedia - English)
WEB > Weihnachtskarte (Wikipedia - Deutsch)
WEB > Wer erfand die Weihnachtskarte? (AVG)

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