Christmas Cards
The first White House Christmas card was sent during the administration of Dwight David Eisenhower in 1953. President Eisenhower was an amateur artist and personally consulted with the head of Hallmark Cards on the project. Over the course of two terms, the Eisenhower White House issued 38 different cards and prints with many of them bearing the President's own artwork. The tradition was continued during the Kennedy years with Jacqueline Kennedy's artwork featured on a 1963 card issued to raise funds for a national performing arts center.
Early in the post-War years, cards exhibited traditional sentiments and art that reassured war weary Americans. As the 1960s neared, however, sophisticated, adult-oriented cards called "Slim Jims" began appearing on the market. The cards displayed Santas driving fin-tailed convertibles and beatniks delivering greetings in hepcat lingo. The highly stylized cards remained popular well into the 1960s, poking fun at fads and world events. Family photo cards and newsletters (meticulously handwritten or typed by busy moms) became commonplace during the 1960s as well.
Hallmark brought African American culture to greeting cards in the 1960s as well as contemporary cultural images such as elves sporting Beatle haircuts and psychedelic Christmas trees in Warholesque colors. "Happy Christmas" replaced "Merry Christmas" here and there after clergymen decided the traditional greeting was associated with inebriation. In 1961, 50 billion Christmas cards were mailed by Americans, and, in 1962, America's first Christmas postage stamp was issued—causing a mild firestorm by those who felt the stamp violated separation of church and state.
Read more about this topic: Christmas In The Post-War United States
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