Christmas

Always observed on December 25

Facts

Christmas is the largest card-sending holiday in the United States, with approximately 2.2 billion cards sent to friends and loved ones every year.

Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.

According to Hallmark research, consumers say they always participate in the following activities during the holiday season:

• 98% Wrap presents
• 90% Decorate inside their homes
• 88% Decorate a Christmas tree
• 85% Send Christmas cards, letters or photos
• 83% Play Christmas music
• 77% Attend a Christmas party, gathering or luncheon

2007 Product News

• More than 1,900 individual Christmas cards, including the popular Cards With Sound that play favorite Christmas songs and audio clips from holiday movies and TV shows, and introducing new Cards With Motion that display a fully animated two-second scene.

• More than 400 culturally relevant cards, including more than 100 Mahogany cards for African-Americans and more than 300 Sinceramente Hallmark cards for Hispanic consumers.

• Six gift wrap collections featuring papers with foils, glitter, flocking, bags with attachments such as fur, buttons and pompoms, and dozens of accessories to dress up a package including tags, jingle bells, snowflakes, greenery, bows and ribbons.

• More than 300 all-new Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments featuring two new series, several design collections, dozens of favorite licensed characters, and lots of the magic – including ornaments with sound, motion and lights.

• Hundreds of holiday gifts and decorations that include the Snow What Fun Sledders singing and dancing snowman and friends, holiday music CDs including a Barry Manilow CD available at a special price, colorful lighted snowmen, light-up spoons and dip spreaders, candles, plush characters, ornaments, books, gourmet chocolates and foods, photo frames, and Instant Scrapbooks.

• Everything needed for a festive holiday party including six distinctive paper partyware patterns and unique invitations, doilies, place cards and food markers.

Holiday History

Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the third century, efforts were made to find out the date of the Nativity, but only in the year 336 A.D. was the date of the Dec. 25 festival set in commemoration of Jesus’ birth. Pope Julius formally selected Dec. 25 as the day of Christmas in 349 A.D.

Roman Catholics, Lutherans, members of the Dutch Reformed and Anglican churches, and those of the German sects were most responsible for establishing Christmas traditions in America. Christmas customs spread with the westward expansion of the United States and by the late 1800s had become firmly entrenched in American society.

In Stores

Available at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores nationwide. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.