"John Meagher had to engage a horse and wagon yesterday to deliver the mails in the city," so announced the Halifax Herald on December 27, 1898. Apparently the custom of sending Christmas cards began in the Victorian era in England in the 1840s around the time when Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree, and Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. The first cards were handmade but by the end of the 1840s they were being marketed publicly. The scenes generally featured mistletoe and yule logs.
Canadians started making their own Christmas cards around the 1870's and often the illustrations had nothing to do with Christmas such as outdoor scenes by artists Cornelius Krieghoff and William Barlett. Religious themes and Santa Claus seldom appeared. Sleigh scenes, winter sports, children in the snow, and above all snowshoeing were popular themes and Canada by name was commonly included for folks corresponding with the old country.
By the 1880s cards were popular enough to start overloading the post office. In December 1881, the Toronto letter-carriers were often toting forty pounds of mail at a time, and extra men had to be hired to handle the Christmas rush.
Source: Canadian Christmas Book by Caroline Carver
Tundra Books of Montreal/Collins Publishers, Toronto 1975
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