As we work slowly but surely towards the end of term, we thought you might enjoy some of the Christmas cards we have found in the archives from various schools. Although Christmas tokens were sent as early as 1611, commercially produced Christmas cards weren’t available until as late as 1843, becoming very popular by the 1920s for businesses or institutions to produce their own versions.
The earliest Christmas card in the Foundation Archive is from 1901 from the school captain of KES to a fellow student, S.J.H. Wilkes. During this time, festive pictures as we know them today, weren’t common on Christmas cards and so the photograph is of the student desks in Big School - presumably because all students would be desperately looking forward to next term!
KES/M/26/1 – Christmas card from H. M. Steinhart [later Stannard], the School Captain, to S. J. H. Wilkes. Steinhart/Stannard sent a card to every boy in the school, had a brilliant career in Oxford, joined "The Times" newspaper and became an authority on the history of Europe. 1901.
Our next earliest Christmas cards originate form Aston in what we suspect are the 1930s or 1940s when some specially designed cards were created for the school, picturing key scenes from the Foundation’s history and Aston Hall.
AST/M/3/1 - Unused Christmas cards featuring black, white and red line drawings. Undated
Other schools used Christmas cards as a way of highlighting their history. In 1978 for example, Five Ways used a drawing of Tyn-y-Waen, the school cottage in Oswestry, Wales, as a Christmas card, selling them for charity. Tyn-y-Waen was a five-acre farm owned by the school from 1961 until the mid-1990s and used by pupils as a base for CCF expeditions, Scout events and biology/geography field trips.
FW/M/26/2 - Christmas card featuring a drawing of Tyn-y-Waen, the school cottage in Oswestry, Wales. The drawing was by Richard Stirrup, OE 1973-1980. Sold in aid of charity. 1978.
But there are more traditional Christmas cards showcasing beautiful artwork by students in bright, cheerful colours and beautiful lettering:
And of course, focussing on the themes of Christmas, such as goodwill and kindness, as in this example from Lordswood Girls.
LWG/I/B4/1 – Christmas booklet for Holly House prayers, 1964, by Carole Price.
From both Rachel and Charlotte in the Foundation Archives, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2025 for more archival adventures!
