The History of Christmas Cards

The History of Christmas Cards

□刘晓妮

虽然圣诞节是西方的传统节日，但中国的年轻人一直特别热衷于过圣诞节。圣诞前夕，商家为赚取消费者的眼球，在商店里陈列各种圣诞树和琳琅满目的圣诞礼物。同学们之间会通过互相寄送各种圣诞卡来庆祝圣诞节。那关于圣诞卡，大家又了解多少呢？

The tradition of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole.He was very interested in the new“Public Post Office”and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.

送圣诞卡片的传统兴起于1843年英国的亨利·克勒爵士。他对新的“公共邮局”很感兴趣，并想知道它怎样能更多地被普通人使用。

wonder vt.惊奇；对……感到好奇；感到诧异；想弄明白

adj.奇妙的；钦佩的；远超过预期的

n.奇迹；惊奇；奇观；奇人

Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas cards with his friend John Horsley,who was an artist.They designed the first card.About 1,000 were printed and sold.They are now very rare and cost thousands of pounds or dollars now!

亨利爵士是一个艺术家，和他的朋友约翰·霍斯利有了共同制作圣诞卡的想法。他们设计了第一张卡片，约1000张卡片被印刷和出售。它们现在非常稀有，价值数千英镑或美元！

rare adj.罕见的，特殊的；优秀的，不寻常的

The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840.Before that,only very rich people could afford to send anythinginthemail.Cards becameevenmorepopular intheUKwhenthey could be mailed for half the price of an ordinary letter.

普通人可以使用的第一个邮政服务是从1840年开始的。在此之前，只有非常有钱的人才可以支付得起任何邮寄的东西。当邮寄卡片只需支付邮寄普通信的一半价格时，卡片在英国变得更加流行和受欢迎。

afford vt.提供；买得起；担负得起；给予

As printing methods improved,Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers from about 1860.By 1870 the cost of sending a post card,and also Christmas cards,had dropped a lot.This meant even more people were able to send cards.By the early 1900s,the tradition had spread over Europe and had become especially popular in Germany.

随着印刷方法的改进，圣诞卡变得越来越受欢迎，并从1860年开始大批量地生产。到了1870年，邮寄一张明信片或者圣诞卡的费用，已经降低了很多，这意味着更多的人能够寄送卡片了。到了20世纪初，这种习俗已经传遍欧洲，在德国尤其受欢迎。

spreadvt.&vi.展开；伸开；（使）传播；（使）散布

In the 1910s and 1920s,homemade cards became popular.They were usually too delicate to be sent through the mail and were given by hand.

在20世纪初，自制卡片走红。它们通常太精致，以至于人们不通过邮件发送，而是亲手送出。

delicateadj.微妙的；熟练的；纤弱的；易损的

Nowadays,cards have all kinds of pictures on them:jokes,winter pictures,Santa Claus or romantic scenes of life in past times.Charities often sell their own Christmas cards as a way of raising money at Christmas.

如今，卡片上印有各种各样的图片：笑话集锦、冬天的图片，圣诞老人亦或是浪漫的生活场景。慈善机构往往把在圣诞节出售自己的圣诞卡作为一种筹集资金的方式。

charityn.慈善（行为）；施舍，捐助；慈善机关；仁爱，宽容