I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. – Charles Dickens

Sending greetings in the form of painted pictures and phrases at the time of Christmas is a centuries old tradition. Christmas Greetings in the present shape of Printed Christmas Cards can in to existence from early 1840s. Since then millions of cards with beautiful illustrations and images are sent globally each year. In this edition of Design Inspirations we are revisiting some of the designs and illustrations that where in existence in the vintage era of Christmas Greeting cards.

All the Christmas Greeting cards showcased here are from a bygone era and we are thankful to those net users who have painfully digitized and stored them on the Internet so that coming generations can enjoy these classic pieces of artwork.

You can see the cards in full size by visiting the original sources to which each card image is linked.

All the cards showcased here where taken from the Internet and due acknowledgement is given to the original uploaders of these files in the form of a direct link to the original source.

If you have more vintage greeting cards to share then drop in the sources via our comment section.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.