The year 1843 was a good one for Christmas. Dickens’s legendary festive tale, A Christmas Carol, was published and the first commercially produced Christmas card was launched. Today, an estimated one billion cards are sent each year in the UK alone. By the time December 25 comes around, mantelpieces across the country are bedecked with images of chirruping robins, snow scenes, angels and, of course, Father Christmas himself. But such festive creations are a far cry from their Victorian forebears
As strikes send an already vast backlog of mail soaring, some Christmas cards are now predicted to arrive in February. However, the number of Christmas cards that are sent have been dwindling