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***The Official Friday Silliness Thread****
Posted on 12/12/2008 4:48:53 AM PST by 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.
TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: christmascard; ofst; silliness
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To: ShadowAce; Lucky9teen
81
posted on
12/12/2008 9:24:40 AM PST
by
do the dhue
(They've got us surrounded again. The poor bastards. - One of General Abram's men)
To: ShadowAce
I liked the T3 chase scene
82
posted on
12/12/2008 9:27:00 AM PST
by
Lucky9teen
(When you see all of the smoke billowing up from the Democrats, follow nominees advice: don't inhale.)
To: Lucky9teen
WOOHOO!!!!
Happy Christmas everyone...
83
posted on
12/12/2008 9:36:50 AM PST
by
alarm rider
(Conservatives win elections, Republicans lose them...)
To: Lucky9teen
To: Unruly Human
"I'd like a chaser."
85
posted on
12/12/2008 9:44:46 AM PST
by
weegee
(Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
To: Lucky9teen
86
posted on
12/12/2008 9:51:29 AM PST
by
Girlene
To: Girlene
87
posted on
12/12/2008 9:55:47 AM PST
by
weegee
(Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
To: Girlene
88
posted on
12/12/2008 9:56:39 AM PST
by
weegee
(Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
To: Girlene
89
posted on
12/12/2008 9:57:10 AM PST
by
weegee
(Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
To: red-dawg
Mr. Lumbergh told me to talk to payroll and then payroll told me to talk to Mr. Lumbergh and I still haven't received my paycheck and he took my stapler and he never brought it back and then they moved my desk to storage room B and there was garbage on it...
To: BenLurkin
Comment #92 Removed by Moderator
To: egannacht
Didn’t George Costanza get fired from some job and keep going into the office anyway?
93
posted on
12/12/2008 10:18:43 AM PST
by
weegee
(Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
To: egannacht
To: Lucky9teen; Slings and Arrows; Lady Jag
To: Lucky9teen; Slings and Arrows; Lady Jag
To: egannacht
To: egannacht
To: egannacht
To: egannacht
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