Christmas cards, as we know them, are very much a 20th-century phenomenon.

The Victorians lacked the codified iconography that we use today (Santa, elves, reindeer etc.) & instead produced an eye-bogglingly varied array of fabulously bonkers Christmas card designs, ranging from mildly inappropriate to unashamedly weird! 

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Victorian Christmas cards often had darkly humorous & outlandish designs with a twisted spin on seasonal greetings.

Rather than twinkling baubles & snowflakes, their subject matter was often strangely macabre. Themes included murderous frogs, dead birds, random lobsters, ant battles,, bloodthirsty snowmen, giant insects, anthropomorphic vegetables, sinister clowns, & miserable crying children & animals. Some of this weirdness lies in the fact that they were jokes based on cultural references of the time (well known signs of good fortune, folklore etc.) but from a modern perspective we just don’t ‘get’ the joke & so they come across as utterly bizarre!