Christmas Shop

The world’s first commercially produced Christmas cards order can be attributed to Sir Henry Cole. Cole made the order to John Callcott to create engraved holiday cards of a prosperous-looking family in 1843. With the sentiment, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You,” and the toasting family surrounded by images of charity on the cards, Cole’s cards have really captured and cemented the purpose of the tradition to order and give holiday cards. By the 1880s, with major advances in cards printing technology as well as in the mail service industry, giving cards has become a major part of the American holiday season too. 

As more and more people have begun to buy holiday cards, Louis Prang, a German emigrant who produced chromolithographed cards, had become an important figure in helping manufacturers meet the ever growing cards demand. With his attractive cards and customer-friendly pricing for said cards, he has become known as the father of American Christmas cards. Although there had been concerns that the American public would tire of holiday cards, especially cards with sentimental subject matters and cards with trite sentiments, with improvements in the quality of image reproduction, the holiday cards market had surged in the early 1900s.  

Ultimately, as cards have come to be produced often by well-paid cards artisans in an increasingly lucrative cards market, holiday cards have come to be accepted as an artistic tradition. In fact, the New York Public Library hosted a cards exhibition in 1930 of the variety of techniques used in the making of holiday cards, where the museum’s curator of prints spoke favorably of the tradition of sending cards as well as of keeping cards as keepsakes. After all, it has become commonly accepted that holiday cards can be a form of Christmas remembrance, and to order and mail such holiday cards is a means to celebrate delightful cultural experiences with friends and family.  

To order and send cards has therefore become a major American tradition, and a cultured one at that, as the act of sending cards has also become associated with charities and other prestigious organizations. As history has shown us, the tradition of sending physical holiday cards to express strong personal affection is entrenched in American culture, as evident in the billion dollar American greeting cards industry.  

Producing cards since 1977, Up With Paper is legacy of the American public’s undying love of holiday cards. We continue to cater to anyone looking to order and send cards. With a wide variety of bulk holiday cards to order from, we are at the disposal of every customer, whether an individual or a company, looking to spread some holiday cheer in the form of holiday cards. We believe that holiday cards, like everyday cards and ultimately, cards of any sort, are an artistic tradition. In order to live up this belief, we make cards of the highest quality. We live by the tradition of holiday cards and hope that you do too.