Christmas Cards were introduced in 1843 (the same year A CHRISTMAS CAROL was first published) by Sir Henry Cole, an English businessman and patron of art.
The card was designed by John Calcott Horsley, and helped popularize the expression "Merry Christmas". Cole printed a thousand cards and sold them as a means to simplify the sending of Christmas greetings. Postage for the cards was one penny in the 1840s.
Within a few years after the introduction of the halfpenny rate for mailing cards in the 1870s, the British Post Office was flooded with annual card mailings.
Christmas cards in the United States were first produced for businesses to send to their customers as a form of advertising.
《THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS》http://www.benbest.com/history/xmas.html
![[First Christmas Card]](http://www.benbest.com/Firstchristmascard.jpg)