When the marketing of attractive commercial Christmas cards start in 1843 the postal burden worsened. The first Christmas card designed for sale was by London artist John Calcott Horsley. A respected illustrator of the day, Horsley was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman, who wanted a card he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a "merry Christmas."

Interestingly enough the first Christmas card’s read: "merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." "Merry" was then a spiritual word meaning "blessed," Of the original one thousand cards printed for Henry Cole, twelve exist today in private collections. In 1875, Louis Prang, from Boston began publishing cards, and earned the title "father of the American Christmas card."

But Prang’s high-quality cards were costly and he was eventually forced out of business in 1890. It was cheap penny Christmas postcards imported from Germany where the hit until World War 1. By the end of the war, America’s modern greeting card industry had been born.