CHRISTMAS CARDS WARM MORE THAN ROOMS FOR THE HOLIDAY

Harlan Smothers displayed a few of the penny post cards in his collection.

Michael Roark has collected penny postcards for many years.

Displayed on mantels, tables, around doorways and under glass, Christmas cards from friends and family during the holiday season warm more than the room.

They've been warming hearts for generations.

The earliest Christmas cards were used as gifts, explained Dr. Michael Roark, professor of geography at Southeast Missouri State University. Many of the early cards, the Jackson resident explained, "were gilded, painted, had embroidery on them, or they would have fringe around the edges."

Plus, Roark noted, many of the cards were embossed. "It was rare to have anything with a color image and to get one was a real gift," he said. "The hand labor, hand work, took really a lot of man hours."

Roark has been collecting vintage penny postcards and advertising cards for about a dozen years. "It's a hobby, but I've also used it as an intellectual exercise to look at American folk culture and how it comes from different European roots," Roark said.

One of the earliest Christmas cards recorded, and credited by some as the first true Christmas card, featured an English family offering a toast toward the reader. The 1843 card bore the inscription: "A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You."

Penny postcards, which derived their name from the cost of sending them through the mail, were popular in the United States during the first 20 years of this century.

"They're very collectible now, especially the Santas," noted Harlan Smothers who operates Smothers Antiques/Gordonville Antique Mall in Gordonville. He maintains a private collection of penny postcards. Both Roark and Smothers collect cards for holidays and subjects other than Christmas.

"One of the fascinating things is the image of Santa Claus and how that differs," Roark agreed. For instance, Roark noted, the American conception of Santa became the jolly figure created by Thomas Nast. However, he explained, "The Germans didn't have such a conception, so they usually have him in robes, sometimes wearing a bishop's miter and in different colors other than red." Many of the early postcard publishers were German.

While Santa was a popular Christmas card character, dozens of other subjects were portrayed. Children, families and landscapes were favorite subjects, and the Christ Child was often depicted as an angel.

Good luck symbols like four-leaf clovers and horseshoes were sometimes seen, Roark noted, displaying a card with a horseshoe intertwined with holiday greenery.

Christmas card styles began changing in the 1920s, explained Smothers. "They went to more of a linen-type card; they were not quite as elaborate. It was still a postcard, but with more of a matte finish," he said.

Greeting cards similar in form to the ones mailed in envelopes today came on the scene in about the mid-1920s, explained Lee Ann Hansen, owner of Hansen's Collectibles in Cape Girardeau. "Postcards never were big again after the war," she said, referring to World War II.

"There was a big flux of Christmas cards in the '40s, '50s and '60s," Hansen said. Christmas cards were particularly popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, she said. "This is the card that you would order. Women would order 100 cards, have their names imprinted, and mail them out."

Just how many Christmas cards families mail will differ from home to home, but the average household will receive about 25 greeting cards this year, said Carol Soaper, owner of Carol's Hallmark Shop in Cape Girardeau.

That figure translates to the exchange in the United States this year of about 2.65 billion Christmas cards, Soaper said, quoting Hallmark estimates. "Christmas is the largest card sending holiday," she said.

Sending cards on special occasions is a deeply ingrained tradition, and one that post offices anticipate. "People still like to send that personal touch," said Steve Manley, plant manager of the Cape Girardeau Processing and Distribution facility. "The difference between a holiday like Mother's Day or Valentine's Day is that the mailing season for Christmas is more extended."

Christmas greeting cards typically start showing up at the post office in the early days of December, and mailing continues all the way to Christmas Eve, Manley said.

To help speed delivery, Manley advised senders to mail cards as early as possible and use printed labels. If hand addressing, he suggests people write in dark, block letters. A white or very light background also helps speed the process.

Greeting cards with a nostalgic feel are extremely popular, Soaper said.

"Lots of people are coming back to the old cards," Hansen observed. Reproductions of old postcards and greeting cards are often seen, she noted.

And, people like to decorate with the old cards, too. "Lots of people will frame them or have them sitting around their houses," Hansen said. "Sometimes you can even find a card that has your name on it."