This is a ONTD Art Moment™: The Nightmare Before Christmas Edition 🎄🐐🎁
As the days get darker and colder this time of year, people hunker down and prepare for their holiday festivities. One of the more common ways of getting in touch with friends and relatives are holiday cards either sending joy and good wishes, or news about what happened to their family that year. This is a family tradition for many, but where did it originate? And even more important, why is the art on older Victorian-era cards so….dark compared with their modern-day counterparts? Let’s find out!
Victorian Christmas Cards: A History
While most of the traditions we associate with Christmas originated with Pagans, most of what we consider “Christmas” (ie: the decorated trees, big family dinners, Santa, etc) became popular during the Victorian Age. Sending letters to friends and family with personal news and best wishes for the coming year was a long-standing holiday tradition in Great Britain, and with the introduction of the Penny Post in 1840 it only grew more popular. Under this system, standard letters could be mailed anywhere in the United Kingdom for just one penny, which was about a quarter of the previous price. While this had many benefits, it proved to be quite troublesome for people with a full social calendar during the holiday season, and many people had trouble keeping up with their correspondence. Henry Cole (a civil servant at that time) did not want to appear rude by ignoring some of his messages so he devised a novel solution; he asked his artist friend John Callcott Horsley to create a festive illustration with a generic “To” and “From” field that he could personalize to the recipient. He had around a thousand cards printed, and in addition to using them he also sold them for one shilling each. This idea caught on like wildfire, and soon other printers began to sell ready-made Christmas postcards.
At the time, this was a very new thing and there wasn’t an established “look” for Christmas cards. As a result, a lot of the artwork had little to do with what we associate with Christmas today. Nature was a common theme but was often unseasonal (showing fields and meadows in the Springtime, flowers in full bloom, etc), and a lot of cards were quite morbid in nature, with death also being a common motif. People in the Victorian Era were no strangers to death; life expectancy for even a middle-class person was around 45 years, and it was common for workers to die in their late 20s. Children were lucky if they reached their 5th birthday. So as a result, they had a very different relationship with Death than we do today, and the Christmas cards of that age depicted it in an almost playful fashion…the lighter side of death, if you will.
Christmas festivities at that time were in a transition from bawdy medieval revels to the child-centric holidays we have today, and the humour in Victorian greeting cards is a holdover from the high spirits of earlier Yuletide traditions. During the medieval and Renaissance periods Brits of all demographics would spend the 12 days of Christmas eating, getting trashed, and general debauchery (including theft and assault), and later these hi-jinks were depicted in the cards; often showing animals behaving like people, food attacking people, and other general disorder.
In addition, being the darkest time of the year people would spend the evenings hunkered down around the fire telling spooky stories about ghosts, death, and supernatural beings as well as cautionary tales of the poor dying in the December cold, which is why we have stories like A Christmas Carol and The Little Match Girl. From this perspective, images of mortality on Victorian Christmas cards may have been intended to move the recipient to charity, or to remind them to be grateful for their own health and good fortune.
Either way, Victorian Christmas cards and postcards are a fun throwback to the past, and the art is really lovely. Below are a few of my favorites:
Unfortunately this was the time of year that thanks to all the shenanigans going on, assaults and robberies were depressingly common. This is a more humorous depiction of these sorts of events.
🎶🎶 This the season for diarrhea, Fa-la-la-la-laaaa...
And the band played on…
Ok. I guess we’re celebrating Halloween AND Christmas at the same damn time.
I haven’t the slightest idea of what’s going on here. Maybe she’s just really hungry?
Girl, are you really at the zoo beating animals? If you don’t put that umbrella down…
Because sometimes you just have to race your friends, even if you’re a rooster.
What the hell is going on here? Why is Santa in a bagel, and why are the elves dancing around a huge bowl of soup?
“I SAID, no caroling!"
Frogs were a common theme on cards, and the more humorous the depiction the better. This one is dancing with a beetle while a mosquito plays music.
Because all we want for the holidays is a giant headless egg-baby…
Oh, dear. I have no idea WTF this is.
Krampus
The Brits weren’t the only ones doing the most regarding their holiday greetings. The Germans and Austrians have a fine sense of humor as well, and this is often depicted in their holiday cards.
The most popular figure on the cards? Krampus. Krampus has its origins in Germanic folklore and was a good way to scare the hell out of your kids during the Holiday season. He is known as the “anti-Santa” who instead of bearing gifts, beats bad children with a switch and drags them off to hell instead. Extremely popular in 18th and 19th century Bavaria and Austria, Krampus Christmas cards (known as “Krampuskarten Cards”) were a popular illustrative choice of the day for the holiday season.
Sometimes introduced with Gruß vom Krampus (Greetings from Krampus), the cards usually have humorous rhymes and poems. Krampus is often drawn as a part goat, part devil figure with a long tongue, goat horns, and cloven hooves, and while the myth generally says that disobedient children would be scared by Krampus with rusty bells and chains, the more darker stories had him beating them, stuffing them into baskets, drowning them, or perhaps making a meal out of the plumper ones.
Krampus is also depicted as a woman. These cards have a more sexual nature and were aimed towards adults. The female Krampus (usually shapely and big breasted) is generally shown either beating men, chaining them up to get devoured later, or snatching up the hapless in her baskets. From the expressions on their faces the men are usually happy to get in her baskets so it was like a seduction of sorts with some heavily coded BDSM overtones thrown in for good measure.
Awww…that lil man is OVERJOYED to be in her basket!
A more modern take on the female Krampus because why the hell not? Artist: Cassandra Dunn
Yule Cat
This much beloved kitty has its roots in Icelandic tradition, and went from being scary to a beloved icon over the centuries. Until the early 2000s, all clothing in Iceland came directly from sheep’s wool that had to be meticulously processed before the harsh Nordic winter set in. Everyone (even children) had to work together towards that goal, and in order to enjoy the holidays properly all work had to be done (knitting, cooking, etc) in order to have provisions in the new year. Someone being lazy could delay this, so some drastic measures had to be taken.
At the time, new clothes were only gifted to those who had completed their work on time, so if you didn’t have any that meant you were probably (but not always) a lazy asshole who didn’t put in the work. If people were freezing during Winter AND had nothing to sell the following year the whole community would suffer, and since children were vital to the farming workforce back then the obviously more lazy kids needed an incentive to get their work completed.
For some children, the shame of not having new clothes (and a reputation for being lazy) was enough of a deterrent but others needed something more scary. Thus, the Yule Cat was born. Cats were the traveling companion of choice for Vikings, and it’s believed that the Nordic Yule Goat was the precursor to Iceland’s Yule Cat, as both monitored people’s holiday preparations (or lack of) and both penalized those who didn’t receive new clothes. According to legend, the Yule Cat prowls the Icelandic countryside during the Christmas season looking for people without new clothes and punishes them (depending on the storyteller, the punishment can range from devouring the lazy to merely eating their Christmas dinner). The cat also has a more benevolent, philanthropist side as it became a good reason for the more affluent to provide for those less fortunate, as they would often buy clothes for those who had worked hard but were still unable to afford them, thus sparing them from the feline’s fiery wrath.
Over time, the Yule Cat has transformed from being a scary nighttime story for Icelandic children into a more positive icon. In modern day Iceland, his image is often used in promoting giving to the poor and homeless through food and clothing drives, and reinforces good will, charity, and hard work throughout the holiday season.
Whether you are celebrating Chag Hanukkah Sameach, Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, or Joyous Kwanzaa, the Benevolent Cabbage Fairy wishes our ONTD members and lurkers alike a Happy Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year. ONTD, what are your holiday traditions? Are you a postcard/Christmas card person, or do you like to send Holiday Newsletters? What holiday traditions do you follow? What types of foods are your favorites this time of year? Come on in and tell us all about it!
Die Quellen:
+ My Partner (who suggested that I make a Holiday Art post featuring “those crazy Victorian cards that you like for the purple people at 'Oh Yes They Did, Too.’”)
+ The good folks at the Strange Company Facebook page who post the funniest cards every year
+ History of Victorian Christmas Cards
+ Even MOAR Victorian Card History!
+ Krampus Card History. A more detailed synopsis on Krampus folklore can be found here.
+ Yule Cat
Victorian Christmas Cards: A History
While most of the traditions we associate with Christmas originated with Pagans, most of what we consider “Christmas” (ie: the decorated trees, big family dinners, Santa, etc) became popular during the Victorian Age. Sending letters to friends and family with personal news and best wishes for the coming year was a long-standing holiday tradition in Great Britain, and with the introduction of the Penny Post in 1840 it only grew more popular. Under this system, standard letters could be mailed anywhere in the United Kingdom for just one penny, which was about a quarter of the previous price. While this had many benefits, it proved to be quite troublesome for people with a full social calendar during the holiday season, and many people had trouble keeping up with their correspondence. Henry Cole (a civil servant at that time) did not want to appear rude by ignoring some of his messages so he devised a novel solution; he asked his artist friend John Callcott Horsley to create a festive illustration with a generic “To” and “From” field that he could personalize to the recipient. He had around a thousand cards printed, and in addition to using them he also sold them for one shilling each. This idea caught on like wildfire, and soon other printers began to sell ready-made Christmas postcards.
At the time, this was a very new thing and there wasn’t an established “look” for Christmas cards. As a result, a lot of the artwork had little to do with what we associate with Christmas today. Nature was a common theme but was often unseasonal (showing fields and meadows in the Springtime, flowers in full bloom, etc), and a lot of cards were quite morbid in nature, with death also being a common motif. People in the Victorian Era were no strangers to death; life expectancy for even a middle-class person was around 45 years, and it was common for workers to die in their late 20s. Children were lucky if they reached their 5th birthday. So as a result, they had a very different relationship with Death than we do today, and the Christmas cards of that age depicted it in an almost playful fashion…the lighter side of death, if you will.
Christmas festivities at that time were in a transition from bawdy medieval revels to the child-centric holidays we have today, and the humour in Victorian greeting cards is a holdover from the high spirits of earlier Yuletide traditions. During the medieval and Renaissance periods Brits of all demographics would spend the 12 days of Christmas eating, getting trashed, and general debauchery (including theft and assault), and later these hi-jinks were depicted in the cards; often showing animals behaving like people, food attacking people, and other general disorder.
In addition, being the darkest time of the year people would spend the evenings hunkered down around the fire telling spooky stories about ghosts, death, and supernatural beings as well as cautionary tales of the poor dying in the December cold, which is why we have stories like A Christmas Carol and The Little Match Girl. From this perspective, images of mortality on Victorian Christmas cards may have been intended to move the recipient to charity, or to remind them to be grateful for their own health and good fortune.
Either way, Victorian Christmas cards and postcards are a fun throwback to the past, and the art is really lovely. Below are a few of my favorites:
Unfortunately this was the time of year that thanks to all the shenanigans going on, assaults and robberies were depressingly common. This is a more humorous depiction of these sorts of events.
🎶🎶 This the season for diarrhea, Fa-la-la-la-laaaa...
And the band played on…
Ok. I guess we’re celebrating Halloween AND Christmas at the same damn time.
I haven’t the slightest idea of what’s going on here. Maybe she’s just really hungry?
Girl, are you really at the zoo beating animals? If you don’t put that umbrella down…
Because sometimes you just have to race your friends, even if you’re a rooster.
What the hell is going on here? Why is Santa in a bagel, and why are the elves dancing around a huge bowl of soup?
“I SAID, no caroling!"
Frogs were a common theme on cards, and the more humorous the depiction the better. This one is dancing with a beetle while a mosquito plays music.
Because all we want for the holidays is a giant headless egg-baby…
Oh, dear. I have no idea WTF this is.
Krampus
The Brits weren’t the only ones doing the most regarding their holiday greetings. The Germans and Austrians have a fine sense of humor as well, and this is often depicted in their holiday cards.
The most popular figure on the cards? Krampus. Krampus has its origins in Germanic folklore and was a good way to scare the hell out of your kids during the Holiday season. He is known as the “anti-Santa” who instead of bearing gifts, beats bad children with a switch and drags them off to hell instead. Extremely popular in 18th and 19th century Bavaria and Austria, Krampus Christmas cards (known as “Krampuskarten Cards”) were a popular illustrative choice of the day for the holiday season.
Sometimes introduced with Gruß vom Krampus (Greetings from Krampus), the cards usually have humorous rhymes and poems. Krampus is often drawn as a part goat, part devil figure with a long tongue, goat horns, and cloven hooves, and while the myth generally says that disobedient children would be scared by Krampus with rusty bells and chains, the more darker stories had him beating them, stuffing them into baskets, drowning them, or perhaps making a meal out of the plumper ones.
Krampus is also depicted as a woman. These cards have a more sexual nature and were aimed towards adults. The female Krampus (usually shapely and big breasted) is generally shown either beating men, chaining them up to get devoured later, or snatching up the hapless in her baskets. From the expressions on their faces the men are usually happy to get in her baskets so it was like a seduction of sorts with some heavily coded BDSM overtones thrown in for good measure.
Awww…that lil man is OVERJOYED to be in her basket!
A more modern take on the female Krampus because why the hell not? Artist: Cassandra Dunn
Yule Cat
This much beloved kitty has its roots in Icelandic tradition, and went from being scary to a beloved icon over the centuries. Until the early 2000s, all clothing in Iceland came directly from sheep’s wool that had to be meticulously processed before the harsh Nordic winter set in. Everyone (even children) had to work together towards that goal, and in order to enjoy the holidays properly all work had to be done (knitting, cooking, etc) in order to have provisions in the new year. Someone being lazy could delay this, so some drastic measures had to be taken.
At the time, new clothes were only gifted to those who had completed their work on time, so if you didn’t have any that meant you were probably (but not always) a lazy asshole who didn’t put in the work. If people were freezing during Winter AND had nothing to sell the following year the whole community would suffer, and since children were vital to the farming workforce back then the obviously more lazy kids needed an incentive to get their work completed.
For some children, the shame of not having new clothes (and a reputation for being lazy) was enough of a deterrent but others needed something more scary. Thus, the Yule Cat was born. Cats were the traveling companion of choice for Vikings, and it’s believed that the Nordic Yule Goat was the precursor to Iceland’s Yule Cat, as both monitored people’s holiday preparations (or lack of) and both penalized those who didn’t receive new clothes. According to legend, the Yule Cat prowls the Icelandic countryside during the Christmas season looking for people without new clothes and punishes them (depending on the storyteller, the punishment can range from devouring the lazy to merely eating their Christmas dinner). The cat also has a more benevolent, philanthropist side as it became a good reason for the more affluent to provide for those less fortunate, as they would often buy clothes for those who had worked hard but were still unable to afford them, thus sparing them from the feline’s fiery wrath.
Over time, the Yule Cat has transformed from being a scary nighttime story for Icelandic children into a more positive icon. In modern day Iceland, his image is often used in promoting giving to the poor and homeless through food and clothing drives, and reinforces good will, charity, and hard work throughout the holiday season.
Whether you are celebrating Chag Hanukkah Sameach, Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, or Joyous Kwanzaa, the Benevolent Cabbage Fairy wishes our ONTD members and lurkers alike a Happy Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year. ONTD, what are your holiday traditions? Are you a postcard/Christmas card person, or do you like to send Holiday Newsletters? What holiday traditions do you follow? What types of foods are your favorites this time of year? Come on in and tell us all about it!
Die Quellen:
+ My Partner (who suggested that I make a Holiday Art post featuring “those crazy Victorian cards that you like for the purple people at 'Oh Yes They Did, Too.’”)
+ The good folks at the Strange Company Facebook page who post the funniest cards every year
+ History of Victorian Christmas Cards
+ Even MOAR Victorian Card History!
+ Krampus Card History. A more detailed synopsis on Krampus folklore can be found here.
+ Yule Cat