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Show Christmas Card Is Century Old The centennial of the Christmas card is being observed this year. It was in 1845 just 100 years ago that the first Christmas card was designed and dis- mmmm touted. This MMM0 pi0T gree in was the creation S$Mm of W. C. Dobson, a noted British m&Wmt4 artist- ho was 'wkif'twE said to be a fa-- vorite of Queen 1 t ''';f'0-. Victoria. Dob-raVilS Dob-raVilS son- according to tradition, made copies of his lit I card nd sent W;lm0$ them to frienda J & in London and - fmmsm elsewhere in the British Isles. The custom established by Dobson found numerous devotees. In 1846, an English nobleman, Sir Henry Cole, commissioned an artist, John Calcott Horsley, to design a Christ- , :mas card for. him. According to one story, Sir Henry Cole had received such a large num. ber of holiday letters that he could not find time to answer them alL As a means of solving this problem, ' he called in Horsley and asked him : to design an appropriate card. I Horsley's first Christmas card de- . picted a Victorian English family en- . joying the holiday. Except for the ! profusion of detail, the card is like .. .many of the modern greetings. The traditional "A Merry Christmas and , a Happy New Year" was inscribed on the card, with blank spaces for filling in the name of the sender ' and the recipient. From this beginning a century ago, the custom of sending Christmas Christ-mas cards has spread across the 1 ocean to the United States where it has become a traditional part of the holiday observance. |