Peter CostelloThe World of Books
This is the time of the year when the big senders of Christmas cards, such as large businesses, public bodies and politicians are preparing to send out a deluge of ‘seasons’ greetings’ – I suspect that ‘Christmas’ is hardly mentioned on such cards as these for fear of giving offence.
The rest of us will, as usual, catch up with our own smaller quotas of cards – or email greetings as the case may be these days.
It is those cards from politicians though that are particularly weird. Posed with their wife and kids, a model of family life, they are always made the butt of jokes by newspaper columnists. Most of them, bar a token bit of snow or a bit of green, are far removed from the Feast of the Nativity.
Certainly over the centuries since they were first introduced in 1843 Christmas cards have changed. The first ones were produced by Sir Henry Cole, an over energetic Victorian who was involved not only with the Public Record Office, but with the establishment of the Penny Post. He is credited with designed the Penny Black. Be that as it may be, he certainly made and sold the first commercial Christmas cards.
That first card showed a family feasting, with a small girl being given a taste of red wine – which led to protests from some. Two side panels, however, showed the poor being fed and clothed, to remind the wealthy of the true spirit of Christmas. Dickens in A Christmas Carol also helped to develop the ideal of Christmas.
Though early cards showed some nativity scenes, other kinds of winter scenes (such as snow-scapes with robins) were also popular. Today I suspect the actual nativity scene in getting rarer, though goodness knows artists over the centuries have provided us a multitude of these.
But one associates the modern card with such vast enterprises as Hallmark Cards. The modern business has broken up the card market into segments, each of which can be catered for by age, social status, religious outlook, and sense of humour. Far from making the selection of cards, either for anniversaries or for Christmas, easier, it has become far harder than it used to be.
In the US, though not so much here, Christmas is now the ‘holiday season’. For, of course, other religious have their mid-winter feasts too. the Jewish festival of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas to provides another distinct marketing opportunity.
Sensible
I have to say that I think no sensible person is offended by a greeting or friendly message relevant to any friend’s religion. But course, it is perhaps easier for me to take a wide philosophical view of the matter, but there are cards so strange I would not care to get them. However, a strange card can also be an occasion not only for delight, but also deep insight.
One of the strangest, and yet most interesting Christmas cards I have ever seen was one sent out by the poet Dame Edith Sitwell in 1958. As she was an earnest Catholic convert you might have supposed she would send a religious one; but no.
It shows her hand, long and elegant, holding up a sea shell. In a curious way it evoked the actual appearance of the poet herself – which was strange enough.
But on reflection the card is actually very insightful, even philosophical. The contrast between hand and shell, between man and nature is striking. The shell is the result of the design forces that work in nature – however they may be explained. But the hand shows the opposable thumb, that miracle of biological evolution – or of God’s foresight – which has enabled the emergence of all human achievements, from the earliest stone tool making to creating the Sistine chapel.
The poet, as is the way with poets, had her finger on the heart of creation.