‘Lick and stick’ target date for Christmas mail is Dec. 1

Dec. 1 is “Festive Friday.” Amanda Fergusson, CEO of the Greeting Card Association, based in Teddington, England, a suburb of London, explained: “‘Festive Friday’ is when everyone in the greeting card industry posts their Christmas cards.”

“We in the card industry need to lead by example – we’re asking everyone to write their cards in November, so they are ready to post by Dec. 1 to start that first wave of card sending,” she said.

 

“Greeting cards are amazing little things. We are encouraging people to connect with loved ones through cards this Christmas and to experience the joy of sending and receiving cards,” Fergusson said. 

The first commercially produced Christmas card originated in England in 1843, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole of London, as a “business solution to a personal problem.” Cole was a popular figure during his day, a patron of the arts and a high-ranking senior official in the Public Records Office (postal service).

Writing for The Smithsonian, John Hanc said that “Cole had the misfortune of having too many friends. During the holiday season of 1843, those friends were causing Cole much anxiety.” 

The problem was the volume of letters he was receiving from friends expressing their holiday wishes. Each letter also shared a year’s worth of personal “family milestones.”

“As Cole watched the stacks of correspondence grow, he fretted over what to do,” Hanc said. It was considered impolite not to answer one’s mail. “He had to figure out a way to respond to all these people.” 

The problem was exacerbated by English postal reforms that had been spearheaded by Cole. The introduction of the “Penny Post,” allowing mail to be sent anywhere in the country by affixing a penny stamp, was extraordinarily well received…and “now everybody was sending out Christmas letters,” Hanc said. 

“Cole hit on an ingenious idea.” He approached prominent artist and friend, John Callcott Horsley, and asked him to sketch out an appropriate holiday scene. Cole then took Horsley’s illustration, showing a family at a table celebrating a banquet flanked by images of people helping the poor, and had 1,000 copies made by a London printer.

 

“The image was printed on a piece of stiff cardboard 5 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches in size,” Hanc said. At the top of each was the salutation, “TO:_____” allowing Cole to personalize his responses. A generic greeting followed: “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You.”

 

With 1,000 penny stamps, Cole sent out his now-famous Christmas cards. 

Louis Prang, a Prussian immigrant with a print shop near Boston, Mass., is credited with creating the first Christmas card to originate in the United States in 1875. The card was a painting of a flower, and it read: “Merry Christmas.”

 

“This more artistic, subtle approach would categorize this first generation of American Christmas cards – vivid, beautiful reproductions,” Hanc wrote. 

“People soon collected Christmas cards like they would butterflies or coins, and the new crop each season was reviewed in newspapers, like books or films today.”

 

Festive Friday isn’t just for people “across the pond.” The date can also be observed in the United States. 

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) says “bring it on.” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who owns a home in Greensboro, N.C., commented: “We are ready to deliver for the holidays in a superior manner.”

 

In 2022, the USPS processed record volume – more than 11.7 billion mailpieces and packages during the holiday season. On average, it took just 2.5 days to deliver these items to the intended destination. 

Have faith.