HAVE YOURSELF
A CREEPY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
WITH THESE BIZARRE
VICTORIAN CARDS
The most wonderful time of the year?
Try telling that to Victorian illustrators!
Can’t blame them, though – over the 19th century, Christmas celebrations morphed from rowdy pagan debauchery into the family-friendly festivities we know today. Victorian Christmas were a weird blend of old and new traditions – and their greeting cards reflected it in all their unsettling glory!
With printing innovations making cards affordable, and halfpenny postage allowing anyone to send them, Christmas cards became a MASSIVE trend by the 1880s. Festive greetings doubled as funny conversation starters and scrapbook gems – and the quirkier they were, the better!
Illustrators, facing fierce competition, drew inspiration from evolving holiday imagery, mixing Yule folklore, German traditions (thanks, Victoria and Albert!), and their signature Victorian knack for turning everything creepy, sprinkled with a weird sense of humour! Result? The most bizarre and unsettling mash-up ever!
(I just LOVE how Victorian creativity always veers into the macabre – doesn’t matter if it’s about hobbies, or dealing with overcrowding!)
Anyway, from “funny” wordplay to demons, clowns, and corpses – here are my favourite, deliciously peculiar Christmas cards:
DEAD WREN = GOOD LUCK in Victorian.
Don’t think about it too much.
naughty children to hell – MY HERO!
then I’m all ears for it!
(credit: Look and Learn)
– so confusing!
but better late than never, I guess…?
– with Tom Kitten as a main dish…
– I have so many questions!
(credit: Look and Learn)
And no, it doesn’t say “SWEET MESSENGER OF CALM DECAY” at all!
(a favourite Victorian Christmas game)
were a person…
Well, I hope these gems raised your Christmas spirit to a whole new level! Which one would you love to find in your mailbox? Which one would be your favourite conversation starter? Let me know in the comments!
And if you have a flair for the macabre and feel like sprinkling a bit of Victorian eccentricity into your celebrations this year, don’t miss my other article on 19th-century Christmas traditions… Let’s bring a little morbid cheer back into the season!
Marta
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