WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Christmas Cards 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:06.760 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:09.399 there's Chuck and this is short Stuff and this is 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:13.720 the special Christmas Week version of Short Stuff. So for 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.040 this for this episode, Chuck, we're going to do a 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.200 special Christmas e themed one that also, you can make 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.360 an argument is card themed as well. That's right, and 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.080 we got to give a big shout out to our stuff. 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.920 You shnow. Army member and old friend Robert Paulson also 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.560 now sends us Christmas ideas every year as a gift 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.040 to us. I think, yeah, he actually says, this is 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.440 your holiday gift for me, so don't expect anything else. 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:41.879 But they're good ideas. Yeah, he's He's like, I just 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.960 want to make sure that the Christmas episodes never dry 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.080 up or go away. So he's doing his part, which 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:48.760 is pretty sweet, and he's not the only one. Every 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:50.760 once in a while, some other people sends some ideas, 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.480 but Paulson actually sends links. So that's amazing, and this 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.320 is one of them. He suggested we do one on 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.240 Christmas cards and thank you, Robert. We're going going to 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.600 do that right now. Yes, and also thanks to t Town, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.240 Britannica Victorian Albert Museum in Smithsonian, And we need to 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.760 talk about Sir Henry Cole, one of the one of 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.160 the early pioneers of industrial design. Yeah. I don't know 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:16.800 if he's known as the father of it or not, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.160 but he very well maybe not okay, but he's close. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.840 He's the how we'll call him the grand pappy of 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.760 industrial design. Hum, well, the father came after. It's one 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.600 of those things where like you know, he probably he's 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.600 probably is the grand pappy. So he said that he 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.280 laid the germs of a style. Um, so yeah, I 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.080 guess that was. That's not being the father, that's the 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.240 grand pappy. So um, that's not the only thing he did. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.240 Just doing that would probably be enough to be remembered. 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.000 But he was like a civil servant. He was a 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.280 patron of the yards. He was an important figure in 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:52.360 the UK in the eighteen forties fifties. In eighteen fifty 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.640 two he became the founding director of the UM, the 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.840 Victorian Albert Museum, which is a world famous art and 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:03.240 design museum. UM and leading up to that, he was 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.720 just kind of like a man about town and he 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:09.919 made a lot of He was a very popular guy, 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.679 apparently a good person, and he made a lot of 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:18.240 friends and acquaintances, and that actually became problematic for him, Chuck, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.280 because one of the things that was a tradition in 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.640 Victorian England was that around the holidays you would write 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.880 a letter to your friends and relatives and acquaintances people 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.360 you cared about. And um, that was fine. Like Henry 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.160 Cole could have conceivably gotten away without writing letters because 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.760 he was a very busy guy, and still the Victorians 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.040 would have considered impolite and genteel. It was a different 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.639 side of that same tradition that eventually tripped him up. Yeah, 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.880 you gotta write people back, unfortunately, and I think we 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.360 all can identify with an email inbox where you have 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.519 to write these people back. You can't just ignore these 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.959 things and couldn't back then. You can't now I guess 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.880 you could, but you be rude. So he would get letters, 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:06.799 lots and lots and lots of letters because he was 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.440 a popular guy, and he found himself in a bind 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.960 around the holidays because he just didn't have time to 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:16.200 get back to everyone. So he invented the Christmas card. Yeah, 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:20.359 it's it's indisputable, Like he was the guy that did it. Um, 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.000 and he did it by being a big old patron 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.040 of the arts. He um got in touch with a 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.840 friend of his, John cow Horsely, and said, hoarsely, you 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.400 old dog, can you please draw me a great holiday 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.440 themed image that I can use to transfer a thousand 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.600 times onto card stock. And Horsely did just that. He 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.440 made a very sweet little design. In the middle is 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.360 Sir Henry and his family I think a few generations 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.480 of his family, and they're all toasting and um engaging 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.040 in merriment. Then on the side they're helping out like 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.880 the poor um. And then at the top it says 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.000 to colon blank and then I think it said like 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:03.160 Merry Christmas in Happy New Year, uh, from Sir Henry Cole. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.800 And there's maybe a little bit of a space for 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.640 him to like write like a hush or something as well. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:10.760 But that was it. That was the first Christmas card, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.960 and you sent him out in the Christmas of eighteen 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:19.520 forty three. Brilliant idea time saver. Although people in Victorian 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.000 age didn't think it was a little bit of controversy 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.920 to it because they were like, you know, you didn't 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.400 the point of these Christmas letters is you tell everyone 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.440 what's going on. You catch everyone up on your family, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:37.080 what little uh Timmy is doing, what little Janey is doing? Um, 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:41.120 how bad our alcohol problem is his parents in Victorian England? 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.120 What kind of various diseases are going through the family 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.839 right now? And we get none of this with this card. 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.320 And he went, yeah, but you know what, you're missing 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.240 the point. That is the point I'm thinking about you guys, 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.120 what more needs to be said? Yeah, stop being so grabby, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.400 so needy. Just accept your card and be happy for once, 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.839 like today. So this required like a little bit of 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.480 a transition for the Victorians to get over this, this 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.880 this kind of social transition from these very long drawn 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.440 out letters and the the expectation that they'd be replied 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:20.279 to these slightly impersonal at least compared to letters Christmas cards. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.120 But they actually did finally kind of stick. It wasn't 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.880 like an instant hit, but by the eighteen sixties they 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.480 were definitely there and they were helped along, Chuck by 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.280 a few um other factors that all kind of converged 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.360 together that basically said Christmas cards are it and they're 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.440 here to stay, and no one cares that little Todd 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.120 cholera this year We don't want to hear about that. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.280 We just want the beautiful image in the happy New 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.320 Year and marry Christmas, well wishes. That's right, and we'll 0:05:47.320 --> 0:06:21.840 get to those convergences right after this. Alright, So the 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.960 Christmas card is invented. Christmas started to become really really 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.440 popular as a holiday in Victorian England, so that all 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:31.840 of a sudden was converging with the invention of the 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:36.760 Christmas card, which also converged with the UK, or at 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.280 least Great Britain introducing the penny posts, where anybody gets 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:44.120 into postcard for a penny, which was affordable for almost everybody, 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.400 and all of these things kind of coming together at 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:48.600 once meant all of a sudden, the Christmas card was 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.280 a real deal thing. So one thing about that penny 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.840 post was that Sir Henry Cole himself actually helped get 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.200 that passed through Parliament, which is pretty neat that he 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.880 had his hand in that as well. But um also 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.840 one of the other things that cemented Christmas in the 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.719 aisles was Charles Dickens and Christmas Carol, like really laid 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.560 the foundation for how we understand Christmas today, and that 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.520 book came out the same year that Sir Henry Uh 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.960 mailed his first Christmas cards back in eighteen forty three. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.280 So all these things came together, and like I said, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.160 by the eighteen sixties, Christmas cards were happening, not just 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.720 in the UK, but they've made their way over to 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.360 the US as well. That's right. And the first American 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:34.760 printer of the card was Louis or Louis Prang, who 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.680 was in Roxbury, mass And he debuted his cards in 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.800 eighteen seventy three, Uh, and he also held the design contest. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.400 So I think some of these printers were entrepreneurs, they 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.760 knew how to run a printer, weren't necessarily artists, so 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.600 they would do people still do you know, commission artist 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.040 contest today And that was kind of the first Christmas 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.440 cards in the United States. Yeah, And so for a 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.360 little while there, it looked like Christmas cards were going 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.240 to go the way of Disco. Would eventually go a 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.880 century or so later, um with the introduction of gim cracks, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.840 which were also called geegaws or do dads or whatever. 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:15.640 They're just basically little um like a figurine or costume jewelry. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.200 I saw somebody explain they're just a little something you 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.640 can mail very easily. It says, here's your Christmas President, 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.320 I'm thinking of you. And those actually replaced Christmas cards 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:28.280 for a couple of decades in the United States. That's right, 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.720 about twenty years. They went away, but they came back. 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.120 I think once cameras became a bigger thing. You could 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.760 include a photo of the family, which was a big deal. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.079 Offset printing came around. You could do multiple colors. You 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:42.800 could do that green and you could do that red 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:44.960 at the same time, and it made him a big deal. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.319 Of course, in the Hallmark finally comes around and starts 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:55.160 making Christmas cards, and uh they as well as Louis 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.760 Prang and other folks. They commissioned works from great artists 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:04.120 including Salvador Dali, Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, and Jackie Kennedy. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.640 Have you seen Dolly's Christmas cards? Yeah? It was pretty 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.080 I mean I love everything Dolly does. Yeah, pretty cool. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.600 One of them is Santa Claus growing out of the snow. 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.080 It's like Dolly doing a Christmas card. It's perfect. Yeah, 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.200 it's great. The but um Hallmark also owns the best 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.360 selling Christmas card of all time, called Three Little Angels 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:29.800 that debuted in which you have almost certainly seen um 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.200 because it's still in print today. You can still find 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.600 it today. But it almost looks like a drawing of 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.400 some kind of precious moments e Um, angels and like 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.000 three like they all are are praying, but one of 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.400 them's like got our eyes open and looking at you 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.480 from the card. Um. But that one has sold something 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.960 like thirty four million copies. At least it's a lot 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:54.760 of copies. That was a Gangbusters Christmas card is the 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.720 best Hallmark could have ever hoped for. That's right. These 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.120 days there are digital all ternatives. A lot of people 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.079 just send either on social media or through email or 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.120 something that'll send a digital version. Because Christmas cards are 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.560 pretty wasteful. Uh. There are two point five billion holiday 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.920 cards sold in the US every year, and that's enough 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.240 to fill a football field tin stories high. And so 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.360 if you're gonna do Christmas cards, you might want to 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.160 look into u not using an envelope, just use that postcard. 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.280 If if you gotta mail something, maybe looking to recycled 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.440 paper post consumer recycling is great. Uh, maybe use wood 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.840 based paper, Maybe use hemp or veggie fiber. This one sad. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:39.600 This next one is well, you cannot recycle the glossy 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.000 ones or the metallic finishes. So if you're gonna use those, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.559 those are gonna go in a landfill. Yes, and they're 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.760 gonna have to be fully replaced next year by brand 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.719 new trees, which is say it's right. Also another one 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:51.560 and by the way, this is from t Town, which 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.040 is a nature preserve in the Hudson Valley. Their blogs 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.120 suggested these. Um the last one is hilarious because it's 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.040 gonna make some really great friends out of the people 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.360 who you work with about the year. But do you 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.280 want to contact your Dennis veterinarian or you know other 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.720 people and say, can you please take me off of 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:12.000 your Christmas card? Yeah, which is awkward, but it will 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.360 save the planet, so it's worth it. Because do you 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.640 really care what your Dennist thinks of you? I don't. 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.679 I need to go so they don't like me right now. 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.560 I've never sent Christmas cards in my life. Uh, we 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.480 don't do it, but I do appreciate it when people 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.640 send them. And I want to shout out Emily's aunt 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.559 peg who they do the Christmas newsletter every year, which 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.480 I really love. You get a big like one page 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.920 sheet about the family and all those things we talked about, 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:49.440 catching everyone up on what everyone's been doing throughout and 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.160 on intoo and it's really really nice. So big shout 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.920 out to Aunt Peg and her cousin Alex for this 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:01.320 great Christmas tradition in that family. Todd got caller this year. Yeah, 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.480 hopefully that doesn't happen, so big shout out to Aunt 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.439 Paig always means everybody that we wish you a merry 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.640 Christmas and a happy Holidays. And that short stuff is out. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.640 Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.280 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.400 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.