The year 1843, was to mark a turning point in how the British – and eventually much of the wider world – celebrated Christmas. Not only was it the year in which Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol, was published; it was also the year in which the first commercial Christmas card was created. Henry Cole, a busy London civil servant, commissioned the artist John Callcott Horsley to design a card for him, which he sent to family, friends, and business associates in place of the expected Christmas letters. His extra cards were sold commercially. It is perhaps no coincidence that these two events took place in the same year, as both men were unwittingly capturing what was an as-yet-unrecognized
