First Christmas card's mixed reaction

A descendant of the man who sent the first Christmas card says she gets a mixed reaction from people when she tells them.

"Ah, so he's the one to blame," is the response Alice MacDonnell sometimes gets when she reveals her great, great, great, great grandfather is credited with creating the first festive missive.

Sir Henry Cole, who lived in the village of Shere, Surrey, had unanswered post "piling up" in the run up to Christmas 1843, according to Shere Museum curator Marsha Walton.

"His invention was really borne out of necessity because he was never going to be able to write all of those letters to everybody he knew," she told Secret Surrey.

Ms Walton said Sir Henry asked a friend to design the card for him, which shows three generations of the family enjoying their Christmas lunch.

"Most people today would not recognise it particularly as a Christmassy scene," she added.

Ms MacDonnell said the card upset members of the temperance movement, which campaigned against the sale and use of alcohol at the time, given that the family, including the children, were drinking wine in the image.

"The temperance society were quite upset by this and Henry Cole was not on their Christmas card list," she said.

She added that the card was created at a time of "a huge push for a British Christmas", coming at the same time Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol was published.

Ms Walton said she thinks of Sir Henry, "with thanks".

"I do still like to send Christmas cards," she said. "But also to live in a village at Christmas time is just a beautiful thing."

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