In the cards

In the United States, Christmas cards have circulated since the late 1840s. Louis Prang, a printer who was originally from Germany and had previously lived in the UK, was devoted to mass-producing cards in the US in the 1870s; he used chromolithography technology to lower production costs. In celebration of Prang's contribution, he is now crowned the "father of American Christmas cards". As time marched on, the card industry became lucrative－and competitive. In the 1920s, it's estimated that there were more than 40 factories and 5,000 workers in the industry. Every year, each company would hire artists to design cards, with fierce competition between each other as they clawed for a piece of the market.

In modern times, many people put their received cards on the most noticeable place in their living room, such as the fireplace mantel or on ropes hung from the wall. In 2004, former US president George W Bush and his wife sent more than two million Christmas cards, breaking a record for the most cards sent. Even with the rise of the internet, this cherished tradition is still going strong.

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