A brief history of (weird and wonderful) Victorian Christmas cards, VA

From dancing Christmas puddings, to a lobster snipping at a child, cats doing acrobatics and a dog postman with human hands explore the wide selection of (sometimes unexpected) Victorian Christmas cards in the V A s collection Join us as curators Alice Power and Sarah Beattie take a look at cards from our Prints collection to reveal weird and wonderful tastes from the Victorian era. In a period of great change and innovation, Victorian card companies didn t hold back on trying new ideas, resulting in everything from the now familiar image of Father Christmas and robins, to talking vegetables, fighting kittens and even clowns 00:00 The origin of the Christmas card 03:20 Traditional designs 04:47 Food 06:59 Children and animals 08:41 Humour 10:41 Novelty, delicate cards See objects yourself in our Prints and Drawings Study Room: Find out more about the first Christmas card a