Will Christmas 2022 be the death knell of the Christmas card?  We – Terroir - discuss this every year and so far we have always received a satisfying number of cheerful, picturesque and, occasionally, totally tasteless greetings which warm our hearts and decorate our living room.  But we wouldn’t like you to think that the demise of the cardboard Christmas greeting is the only topic of discussion chez nous.  

2022 has been an extraordinary year.  We hoped that 2022 would see the significant diminution of Covid.  Wrong.  The vaccine seems to reduce many of the symptoms, but the infection rate is still high.  We hoped that 2022 would see the start of overseas travel again.  It has, but many of us have come back with Covid.  We hoped for the 2021 Christmas wishes of ‘peace to all’ would be realised, but didn’t take into account Russian ambition.  We hoped that 2022 would improve conditions in many other countries but the flow of migrants around the world, seeking physical shelter and intellectual freedom, continues.   We hoped that this year would bring political stability.  We were so wrong on that one that you couldn’t make it up.  We hoped that action on climate change and the impact of Cop 27 would be significantly increased.  Again we were disappointed.  We also failed to anticipate inflation, fuel and food poverty and a multitude of strikes expressing widespread concern over quality of life and infrastructure. 

So, our social, political, economic and physical landscape looks pretty grim.  Thankfully our forebears created the concept of a mid-winter festival, to banish the gloom of the cold and dark and to welcome back hope, with the return of the sun. 

It is with enthusiasm, therefore, that we can report that the Christmas card may be reduced in numbers but it is far from dead. 

How does the Christmas card cheer us up?  What landscape does it portray?  What does it say about symbolism and society?  Here is Terroir’s take on the cardboard landscape of Christmas.   

Thanks to various 19th century developments, including the invention of the Christmas card itself (see, for instance, the Postal Museum for further information https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/first-christmas-card/ ), alternative themes began to develop.  Snow became a compulsory feature, architecture sometimes took on a northern or central European look and conifer trees, including the Christmas tree itself, became more frequent.  No, the British Forestry Commission wasn’t founded until 1919, but yes, we did have a heavily German-influenced royal family and travel abroad was also much easier for the moneyed classes and their servants. 

Certain secular symbols have become particularly representative of Christmas cheer.  The Christmas tree of course, is a popular theme but the highly visible robin-in-winter is a clear favourite for decorating Christmas greetings. 

But the big Christmas motif is now the hare, for reasons which escape Terroir.  Perhaps you know better?  Why not stoats in their ermine glory?  It’s good enough for the House of Lords.  But then the House of Lords may no longer be good enough for us. 

These days the cute/humourous Christmas card is also very popular.  This genre has adopted new icons and symbols.  Penguins, bears, sheep and Christmas puddings are now firm favourites.  Even that mythical creature, the hare-rabbit, has gone cute.

But, whatever your taste in Christmas greetings, digital or hard copy, wordy or pictorial, a round robin letter or a phone call on Christmas day (if you can get through, of course) or just a ‘Bah, Humbug’ silence, Terroir wishes you all

a Happy Christmas

and a New Year which is slightly more tolerable than 2022.

Watch out for those hares!