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Merry Christmas


By Liv Skovholm

The tradition of sending Christmas greetings on preprinted cards came to Denmark more than 100 years ago and the first Danish-language Christmas card saw the light of day in 1882. Since then Christmas cards have become a firm tradition in the Christmas preparations.


The Christmas card is not a Danish invention, but came to the country from England where the first Christmas card was sent in 1842. It has probably to do with the development of the postal service that the Danes only became aware of the nice Christmas tradition 39 years later. Not until 1871 was it allowed to send postcards in Denmark. And in 1888 the postal service introduced different rates of postage for letters and postcards: The rates were 8 ore for letters and 5 ore for postcards. In that way it became both cheaper and easier to send a Christmas card than a Christmas greeting by letter.

The Danish Pixie
The most popular motif of Danish Christmas cards is the pixie which has been a firm element of national superstition for centuries. While Father Christmas, a Christmas tree, or children have been the most popular motifs on Christmas cards in other countries, Denmark has preferred Christmas cards featuring pixies. In Denmark the motifs are also often more humorous than what has been the tradition elsewhere.

In Post & Tele Museum’s collection of Christmas Cards there are several motifs of the pixie teasing a postman who is striding through the winter weather loaded down with letters and parcels to deliver the mail. The postman also became a popular Christmas card motif, probably because he was the one who delivered all the pleasant greetings.

Alternative Christmas Cards
The museum’s collections contain Christmas and New Year cards that no doubt made the postmen – and the recipients – open their eyes wide. In 1938, a New Year greeting was written on a ladle. The stamps were placed on the handle whilst the address was written on the underside of the ladle. About 1960, a dental student sent a Christmas greeting on a plaster cast of a set of false teeth. As these peculiar items of mail were correctly stamped and addressed, they reached their recipients. It is, however, unknown whether or not it happened punctually.

The Christmas Cards Today
The tradition of writing Christmas cards is still going strong. During the last two weeks prior to Christmas the Danes are in average sending 2 million more letters and postcards per day than normally.


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