Happy Creepy Christmas - Victorian Christmas Cards

Leave it to the Victorians to create creepy Christmas cards that would send chills or confusion through a lot of receivers today. Surely though, there are a lot of goths and other like minded who would love them. So let's kick off December with some morbid greetings.

For the Victorians, Christmas cards became a popular way to wish one another a merry holiday and the best for the oncoming year in the 1870's when stamps became more affordable and hence more available to the public.

The images are all beautifully painted and a lot of them very, very bizarre. It's also a very interesting detail to note that there are hardly any religious content in them. 

Many of the popular cards portray dead birds. "A merry Christmas and a happy new year," one says, colorful and bright, while one robin have its wings spread out in death, and another feet up in a bowl of some beverage. The illustration of dead birds is argued to origin in an old tradition of killing a bird (often a robin) to attract luck for the year to come.

And asides from dead birds, how about ditching your traditional Christmas meal in favor of boiled children?

And is there a better way to tell a loved one happy holidays with a picture of a homicidal (frogicidal?) frog?

A beheaded dog wishes you a happy new year. That's awfully cheerful, thank you very much!

Unlike the happy, carrot-nosed frozen figures of today snowmen in the Victorian era were macabre and diabolical. While I personally love this one, I can imagine it invoked nightmares in many children, naughty or nice.

And speaking of naughty and nice, let's have a look at this classic one of Krampus, the devilish figure who comes for the misbehaving children.

So why was death and morbidity such a common theme on these greetings that were intended to be cheerful?

A lot of us goths are fascinated with the Victorian era because of the elaborate mourning rituals. Death was a natural part of life, perhaps because these times were before modern medicine, and many died young. It was also a reminder of those who were less fortunate. Those who had to freeze in the chill and snow of the darkest time of the year.

I find that very beautiful, and the reminder should echo through time to present day, when the last time of the year is about commercialism and often the problem of finding gifts to that one relative who already has everything.

I'm not the Grinch, I love Christmas and giving presents to loved ones, but sometimes we do need a reminder that buying expensive trinkets is not to be taken for granted, and certainly not necessary to express appreciation of the people in our lives.

I could make the list of morbid Christmas cards long, but I'm going to end it here. Hope you enjoyed the post and looking forward to see you back here for the next one. :)

I hope you've all had a great start of this last month of 2018 and feel the holiday spirit awaken.

Until next time!

Sincerely from the dark abyss,

Tanja



Sources

BBC

Hyperallergic

Bored Panda