World's Oldest Christmas Card

When was the last time you received an ACTUAL Christmas card? No, not the virtual cards we personalize online out of ready-made templates and email to our friends in an instant...

Hallmark, the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States since 1910 ride on with the current technology that aside from their traditional printed paper cards, they also offer (with a minimal subscription fee) e-cards or online greeting  cards.

That would save you a lot of money I think, because you don't need to send them through courier and you can be sure that your cards won't get lost into someone else's mailbox.

But don't you know that the world's oldest Christmas card was sent 160 years ago?

A "surviving" copy can be found among the extensive special collections at Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas, which the Library acquired in 1982. 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have survived to modern times.

The card is divided into three panels, each echoing traditional holiday themes. The center panel depicts a family drinking wine at a celebration, and the flanking panels illustrate charitable acts of feeding and clothing the poor.