Who was Henry Cole, the English philanthropist who invented Christmas cards to “not look rude”

However, before the invention of email and messaging applications like WhatsApp These wishes were exclusively expressed in writing on paper cards accompanied by illustrations of the Holy Family, the Bethlehem manger, Santa Claus, decorated trees or any other Christmas motif.

These postcards were sent by mail and delivered by postmen to their recipients in the most remote places.

The curious thing is that this custom—which generated an industry that in 2024 alone had a global turnover of about US$20 billion, according to the American consulting firm Gran View Research—began almost by accident in the first half of the 19th century.

The first recorded Christmas card was sent in December 1843 in the United Kingdom, during the reign of Victoria of England.

Who sent it? Henry Colea renowned English public official, educator, inventor, and patron of the arts who founded, among others, the famous Victoria and Albert Museum—or V&A—in London.

Cole He went to his friend, the painter John Callcott Horsley, to ask him to draw a scene in which a family, with people of all ages, is sitting around a table celebrating the Christmas. And on a type of tablecloth he asked that the message be placed in English: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you (“A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you”).

Next to the central, hand-colored scene were two other black-and-white drawings: on the left, a man feeds a hungry adult and child; On the right, a woman covers a person who is cold.

“The idea is to make it clear that Christmas It is a time to celebrate and also to be generous,” they report from the British museum.

At the top of the illustration he asked that the word be included To (“For”) and next to it a blank line, while at the bottom there was another blank line next to the word From (“Of”).

On December 16, Cole He received the sketch and went to a printing press, where he asked for a thousand copies to be made.

But what led the inventor and educator to do this? The enormous number of letters congratulating him Christmas that he had on his desk and that he had not responded.

“In Victorian England it was considered impolite not to respond to personal letters,” American historian and author Ace Collins explained to BBC Mundo.

“In December 1843, Henry Colewho was a very well-known person, had almost a thousand unanswered letters, as he was also an incredibly busy man. He was in charge of reforming the postal service and worked in the patent office. In addition, he wrote books about architecture under a pseudonym, he was an artist, music critic and organizer of national and international exhibitions,” added the author of books such as Stories behind the great traditions of Christmas (“The stories behind the great Christmas traditions”).

“Cole went to an artist friend with an idea that would allow him to respond to his correspondence in less time and thus not look rude,” he stated.

Marsha Walton, curator of the Shere Museum, the English town about 54 kilometers south of London where Cole was born in 1808, spoke in similar terms.

“His invention was really born out of necessity, because he was never going to be able to answer all the letters he had received,” he told the BBC program Secret Surrey.

The postcards that Cole did not send were sold for one shilling, around $6 today, although under the pseudonym Felix Summerly, according to the UK Post Museum website.

To try to sell the cards, the inventor published an advertisement in a newspaper with the following message: “Just published. A Christmas greeting card: or an emblematic image of an old English holiday to perpetuate good memories between dear friends.”

Although the initial receptivity was not massive—the cost was high—the idea pleased the wealthy classes.

“The people who received the card the following year went to the same printer and had the same card printed for them and in 1845 many rich Britons were sending cards to each other and commissioning art projects to make them,” Collins said.

However, it was not until decades later that this custom became widespread.

“We had to wait until the 1860s, when cards became accessible to all social classes because printing and shipping became cheaper,” the historian said.

Collins also highlighted that the solution of Cole to respond to his Christmas correspondence served to verify the effectiveness of the administrative and technical reforms he imposed on the British postal system.

The inventor was responsible for modifying the complicated tariff system in force until then and replaced it with a single payment of one penny, which served to massify the service, it is recalled on the Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Cole’s card appeared just the same year that the famous English writer Charles Dickens published his famous A Christmas Carol (“Christmas Carol”).

The story about the ruthless banker Ebenezer Scroogewho is visited by three spirits during Christmas Eve, is considered by historians as a fundamental piece for the resurgence of the holiday in England and in those countries with a strong presence of the Anglican Church.

“By 1843, the Christmas It was ignored by the Church of England, because it was still a noisy party, with much drinking and debauchery. It was like a Carnival, but on steroids,” Collins noted.

“The Old English Christmas Carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas (“Merry Christmas to all”), was sung by people at the doors of the houses of the rich on Christmas Eve to ask not only for figgy pudding, as it says in one of its stanzas, but also to demand money, beer or things like that,” he added.

“In contrast, in Germany and Eastern Europe the holiday was a family celebration. And when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, who was German, he brought those traditions to the palace and the Christmas It became a party focused on family and children. “Cole’s card reflected this new way of celebrating the occasion and helped spread it throughout the country and then the world,” said the American historian.

“Thus, the card fulfilled two functions: it established a way to greet and maintain contact with family and friends who were in distant places, and it reinforced the idea of ​​Christmas as a family holiday,” he added.

Throughout his life, Cole was responsible for specific projects such as the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 and the construction of the iconic Royal Albert Hall, but he also saw how his idea of ​​congratulating the Christmas With an illustrated postcard it became a whole new industry.

“I guess he opened the doors to the greeting card industry, although he never anticipated it,” Collins admitted.

From this idea, postcards later emerged to celebrate Valentine’s Day or greet birthdays.

Nearly 1 billion Christmas cards were sent in the United States and the United Kingdom alone in 2024, according to data from the postal services of both countries.

And as if the above were not enough, the English philanthropist’s idea also influenced medical advances.

“Without Christmas cards, there would have been no Christmas stamps that raised funds for causes such as the search for a cure for polio,” added the American historian.

Cole, who died in 1882 at age 74, lived long enough to see his solution to avoid embarrassment become a tradition for millions around the planet.