Christmas Card Day is celebrated on 9 December each year. The tradition of exchanging Christmas cards began in the mid-19th century in the United States as a time saving alternative to letter writing. The first commercially produced Christmas cards in Australia were chosen through a Christmas card competition launched by Sydney-based publisher John Sands in 1881.
“Hitherto we have been compelled to import these cards from England, America, and the Continent, where they are produced in immense numbers; but being published for climates of temperature and season different to our own, they are never specially [sic] appropriate here.”
John Sands, Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 23 May 1881, page 5.
All of the designs had to have “a distinctively Australian character” and many featured native flora and fauna. The tradition has carried on to this day, with modern Australian Christmas cards now including kangaroos in Santa hats or cockatoos hanging baubles on gum trees.
The following images are of Christmas cards from a collection associated with the Adams family who lived at Mangowine on Njaki-Njaki Country, north of the small Wheatbelt town of Nungarin. They are from around the turn of the 20th century and feature intricate designs, poignant poems and thoughtful wishes for a “Bright and Happy Christmas.”
