Greetings, Greeting Card Lovers!
Who doesn’t love receiving a Greeting Card in the mail—especially one with an enclosed, heartwarming note written on a spectacularly printed piece of stationery?! And the special effort for correspondence of this caliber makes folks feel special themselves when it reaches them. It’s a treasured Christmastime tradition that people look forward to in that season, but it’s nice to surprise people with a nice note any time of the year when you have something special to say.
But how long have people been sending greeting cards and decorative paper to one another? It can’t be that old of a tradition, right?
Well…it’s only ancient. Despite being about 2000 years prior to the any kind of post office, exchanging greeting cards goes all the way back to a New Year custom in ancient China in which they sent messages of good will to one another. Around the same time, we see the early Egyptians creating elaborate designs on papyrus scrolls—producing the first stationery. Only the pharaohs and royal families were able to afford this decorated paper.
Through the Dark Ages, things remained essentially the same when it came to 
stationery. Greeting pretty much disappeared until the early 1400s. By that time, the Greeting Card custom had revived in Europe where they started making handmade greeting cards from paper to send Valentine’s messages.
But even then, Greeting Cards as we know them didn’t pick up beyond local exchanges for another 300 to 400 years when the U.S. Post Office became an official agency of the federal government.
Christmas cards became a big-time tradition markedly in 1843 as it was not only the same year that Charles Dickens published his timeless work ‘A Christmas Carol’ which solidified many Christmastime traditions, but it was also the year that one Sir Henry Cole from London hired John Horsley, a visual artist, to design holiday cards intended to send out to friends. And the tradition of the Christmas Card was birthed!
At Everything Summer Camp, we know what a big deal correspondence is to people especially when they’re away for their summer camp stay. That’s why we’re sure to have a great selection of Greeting Cards and Stationery as well as Postcards and even postage stamps for all your mailing fun! As always, thanks for reading, folks!
- John