***The Official Friday Silliness Thread****

[Lucky9teen]

Get ready to send out those Christmas cards (and letters)....

The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir John Callcott Horsley in London, 1843, and featured an illustration by Henry Cole. The picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd.

Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials.

The production of Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images have continued in popularity, and, in the 21st century, reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are also sold in packs of the same or varied designs.

In recent decades changes in technology may be responsible for the decline of the Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004.[1] Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters - especially given the availability of websites offering free email Christmas cards. Despite the decline, 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. [2] Some card manufacters, such as Hallmark, now provide E-cards.

[Rummyfan]

RONIN.... One of John Frankenheimer's, and DeNiro and Jean Reno's, best.....

[skinkinthegrass]

*present*

[Cyber Ninja]