I want to wish all users of the LJ blog platform a Merry Christmas. This is a very bright holiday, which is usually celebrated with the family. People give gifts to each other, set the festive table. Many customs and traditions are associated with this holiday. One of them, unfortunately almost forgotten in our time, is to send Christmas cards to friends and family. People put a piece of their soul and good mood into a holiday card, which they convey to the recipient. It is always pleasant to receive such cards. They evoke warm feelings in the person you want to congratulate. A small piece of cardboard with a color picture and words of congratulations inside can cheer you up on a holiday. You feel that your relatives, friends or even just acquaintances have not forgotten about you. I can't say that I feel the same feelings when I receive an email with congratulations, even if animated.
Here is a small selection of vintage Christmas cards.
Postcards or open letters appeared a long time ago, I consider their prototype engraved business cards, which were popular in France in the XVIII. Also, the prototype of the postcards were traditional popular prints - colored engraved images that adorned the houses of peasants. Religious subjects, heroic or, on the contrary, sarcastic depictions of historical characters, illustrations for fairy tales and folk customs were popular in them. As a rule, such popular prints had a signature or text telling about its content. With the help of such pictures, for example, peasants could see what exotic animals and distant countries look like. They served as a visual aid and textbook for children.
The very first postcards in the modern sense appeared in England. The first Christmas card was created in 1794 by the artist Dobson and was a drawing depicting a winter landscape and a family sitting near a tree. The artist sent this homemade card to his friend, and he really liked it. In 1795, Dobson printed several dozen of these Christmas cards and sent them to his friends. And in 1800, an entrepreneur was found who organized the sale of such cards. John Horsley came up with the idea to decorate the postcard (12x7 cm) with a real Christmas triptych: in the center, the artist placed the family of Sir Henry Cole, sitting at the Christmas table, on the sides he placed pictures designed to remind others of the mercy and compassion of this respectable English family. According to the drawings, the Coles generously shared clothing and food with the poor. About a thousand copies were printed from the original, and for each postcard Coles received a shilling - that was a lot of money! But at the same time, the family was sure that the public's interest in Christmas cards was nothing more than momentary fashion, and not a business. In this they were wrong. Since the 1860s, the production of postcards has been put on stream. The first postcards appeared in Austria-Hungary in 1869. Their appearance was due to the lack of envelopes and paper for ordinary letters. A "correspondent card" was issued with an imprinted stamp that represented the address line on one side and a small text field on the other.
Holiday cards, including Christmas cards, were brought to Russia from Europe, and then a text in Russian was added to them. Enterprising merchants specially bought postcards without text. For the first time, postcards in the Russian Empire began to be sent by mail since 1894, when the Minister of Internal Affairs signed an order authorizing the sending of open letters on private letterheads. The first Russian Christmas cards were issued for charitable purposes by the St. Petersburg Stewardship Committee for the Red Cross Sisters (Community of St. Eugenia) to raise additional funds for the maintenance of the hospital, outpatient clinic and nursing courses. Before revolutionary Russia, Christmas cards were distinguished by their craftsmanship and sometimes surpassed their foreign counterparts. In addition, there was a huge variety of materials and types of decoration. Postcards have become a special kind of art. In order not to limit the imagination of manufacturers, they even abandoned the international standard for the size of a postcard (9x14 cm)
Among the Christmas cards for children, many had educational themes that teach kindness, mercy and compassion.
The tradition of giving each other postcards for the holidays is firmly rooted in Russia. The circulation of holiday cards reached hundreds of thousands of copies.
Outstanding artists such as A. Benois, K. Makovsky, N. Roerich, L. Bakst took part in the creation of Christmas cards. ... According to some historians, the great artist Nikolai Karazin was the creator of the first Russian Christmas card. Images of angels were popular among the subjects of Christmas cards.
all kinds of rituals and fortune-telling, snow-covered landscapes and animals, but compositions with playing and having fun children and Santa Claus were especially good.
1912 postcard
Children loved to receive these cards in addition to gifts.
Among other things, scenes from everyday life were encountered in Christmas cards. They help us better understand the way of life and worldview of people of that era.
Traditional biblical stories were not ignored either.
Holiday cards are also a good indicator of the country's social and political life. Since 1914, the plots of Christmas cards have changed, a military theme has appeared - warriors before the battle, families waiting for them, soldiers saying goodbye to loved ones
In addition to drawing, photographic postcards were also popular. The photographers created interesting compositions, applied various photomontage techniques to get an interesting subject.
postcard 1913
early twentieth century
postcard 1913
The original composition distinguishes these photographic postcards. For photographers, this was a good chance to move away from standard family portraits, which most often made up the bulk of the orders, and to get creative by creating staged shots.
postcard 1914
start XX century
postcard 1912
Since 1917, holiday, and especially Christmas cards in Russia were abolished as they were considered a means of religious propaganda. The Soviet authorities made several attempts to publish greeting cards with the "First year of the October anniversary", "Second ...", etc., but they were not in wide demand. Before the Great Patriotic War, a wide assortment of greeting cards "Happy New Year" and "November 7", and then "From May 9" appeared. Over the past ten years, the tradition of giving and mailing holiday cards at Christmas has gradually revived. Now there are postcards for every taste and a wide variety of subjects. You can send a holiday postcard by e-mail, moreover, animated and with music. But all the same it seems to me that something is not right. You can't put so many good emotions and positive mood in an email, which is necessarily transmitted to the recipient. Yes, and agree to receive a handwritten postcard is always nicer. Finally, at the end of the post, I would like to cite a few modern Christmas cards.
P.S In the course of searching for postcards for this post, I had to browse the entire Internet. In fact, as I understand it, there are quite a few postcards left since the beginning of the 20th century. As you can see above, the scans from the postcards are of good quality and have no damage. In my opinion, this suggests that people have carefully preserved these cards for generations. Over time, they may have become part of the family archives. After these people there were memories in the form of postcards and letters. And what will be left to our descendants after us? In the digital age, items lose their value as such. Such an intimate thing as congratulating those closest to you remains on the servers of the Internet space and you forget about it a minute after you turned off your computer. Maybe you should still start exchanging congratulations again in the form of beautiful postcards (especially since there is a huge selection now, I especially like handmade ones). Then the value of such congratulations will increase and the postcard will want to be kept as a keepsake. And this memory may remain for our descendants as part of history.
Postcards (open letter) first appeared in 1777 in France. Below we are talking about pre-revolutionary, Christmas and New Year cards, but they rather trace their roots from popular prints, which in the 17th-18th centuries were first imported from Germany, and then began to be produced in Russia.
In 1897, the Society of Saint Eugenia issued the first postcards. Their sale turned out to be commercially profitable and quickly paid off. Postcards were issued from the originals of works by famous artists, these were paintings by Boris Kustodiev, Nikolai Pimonenko, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Vladimir Lebedev, Mikhail Germashev.
Of course, they were not as bright as they are today - the level of printing was not the same, and many postcards were generally made by hand. However, these old postcards are excellent illustrations of the traditions and customs that existed then in Russia ...
Most pre-revolutionary Christmas cards feature Bible stories or angels. Popular ideas about the birth of Jesus Christ were formed under the influence of Gospel legends, legends and traditions. Traditional images associated with the birth of Christ are a nativity scene (cave), a manger with a baby, animals - an ox (a symbol of humility and hard work) and a donkey (a symbol of perseverance), Joseph and the Mother of God.
On the oldest postcards with Merry Christmas, all the characters are drawn, but with the advent of photography, they began to print postcards with staged scenes and children disguised as angels. Most of these cards were sold in a photo studio, and they were very popular, because the image was really alive.
No less popular were postcards with everyday scenes on a Christmas theme - like the very first Christmas card, they depicted a table set for the holiday, children opening gifts, funny, sometimes not very sober companies and couples. Sending such postcards, people wished each other what was depicted on the postcard - so that the house was a full cup and there was always enough money for a good festive table.
Other “household” Christmas cards feature decorated Christmas trees. The tradition of decorating a coniferous tree came to Russia along with the first New Year's holiday from Germany, however, until the 30s of the 19th century, Russians, as a rule, limited themselves to spruce branches. The first Christmas trees and Christmas tree decorations appeared in the houses of St. Petersburg Germans, but by the end of the 19th century, the tradition of starting holidays with decorating a Christmas tree had spread throughout Russia.
Among the "household" postcards were "postcards for adults" depicting couples kissing. Indeed, the custom required the guests who came to the house at Christmas to exchange kisses with the hosts, and for young people the holiday was almost the only opportunity to kiss before the wedding, so it was awaited with trepidation. And of course, from many pre-revolutionary Christmas cards, kittens, chickens and piglets look at us, who seem to be also enjoying the bright holiday of Christmas.
A special place among pre-revolutionary Easter cards is occupied by postcards created by the artist Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm (1843-1914), a student of the outstanding Russian artist Ivan Kramskoy - many postcards with her drawings have survived to this day. The main characters of her postcards are children; postcards often have a saying, an instructive or congratulatory inscription.
Since the late 1880s. the artist moved from silhouettes to watercolor technique. She first began working on postcards in 1898 at the request of the Board of Trustees of the Community of St. Eugenia.
The release of the first Boehm postcards was timed to coincide with the Christmas and New Year holidays. "Her two watercolors" Heart sends a message to heart "and" Boy "served as a happy beginning for the publishing house and, finding a warm welcome among the public, demanded several editions."
Art critic Stasov, who was very fond of the "wonderful" children's poems "" Boehm, predicted that "subsequently, all these numerous lovely scenes will, of course, stand with honor in the artistic history of our present time." From today's point of view, such an assessment of Boehm's creative heritage is perceived as somewhat overestimated. However, it should be admitted that Boehm took her place in the history of Russian art in the last quarter of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The name of the artist has not lost its fame for more than a century, and this is not so much the merit of museum exhibits - her watercolors, as of postcards printed from Boehm's originals, mass production, which is still loved by the public.
The Russian Empire met the last pre-revolutionary Christmas and New Year holidays as a participant in the First World War. This could not but find reflection on holiday cards.
Our life is unthinkable without a holiday, and especially without Christmas. This ringing of bells, kind smiles around, faith in the best and love in the air - all this is always expected with all my heart.
The Nativity of Christ is the brightest event in our life. This is the hope for salvation, for the best and brightest. Merry Christmas greetings in postcards, poems, cute pictures can truly please those who are not with you on this great day.
Christmas has its own traditions. First of all, this is the gathering of the whole family together at a common table. It is important to congratulate all those whom you cherish and love so much. But if suddenly someone dear to your heart is now far away, you can give him a little joy by simply sending a beautiful Christmas card with good wishes.
It is important to make peace with those with whom you were in a quarrel. Do not leave negativity in your life, get rid of it, open your heart and soul to goodness and love. Greeting card to help you. This is the easiest and most touching way to remind yourself and your feelings. And you can download a postcard with congratulations on Christmas on our website.
With the right word, you can pour out your soul, confess your love, beg forgiveness. But happiness, as you know, is in the little things. It is not worth giving pompous gifts on a great holiday, your attention is the best present on this day. Those very correct words can be found on cards with Merry Christmas greetings.
Sincere congratulations flow from the heart. This moment is important for any person who wants to reflect in his wish all devotion, love, respect and attention. You can attach postcards in verses with Merry Christmas greetings to these pleasant words. We bring to your attention an amazing selection of bright pictures for free.
