Growth & Jobs | Gzome Artistry resurrects paper Christmas cards

Henry Cole was a prominent educator and patron of the arts who was popular in the elite social circles of early Victorian England. It was a time when the British postal system was being expanded. There was the introduction of the ‘Penny Post’, which allowed persons to send a letter or card anywhere in the country with the purchase of a penny stamp.

Subsequently, it became fashionable to send Christmas and New Year’s greetings by way of letters. During the Christmas season of 1843, Cole, founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was swamped with such letters, causing him much anxiety. He didn’t have much time to respond to all the letters, and it was regarded impolite at that time not to reply to letters.

After much contemplation, Cole came up with the idea of sending greetings by way of a card. He approached his artist friend, J.C. Horsley, and pitched an idea that Horsely sketched. Cole then took Horsley’s illustration of a family at a table celebrating the holiday flanked by images of people helping the poor.

A thousand copies were made by a London printer. The image was printed on a piece of stiff cardboard, 5 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches in size. At the top of each was the salutation, “To:______”, allowing Cole to personalise his responses, which included the generic greeting, “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You.” It was the first Christmas card, and as they say, the rest is history.

Christmas cards eventually became as popular as ‘Baby Jesus’, and in some quarters more popular. He was one of the symbols of Christmas emblazoned on them. The buying and sending of Christmas cards were activities that people looked forward to for decades.The non-receipt of such could cause much tension and bitterness among some loved ones and friends. Christmas was just not the same without receiving a card.

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About the end of the 1900s, however, something happened. Electronic Christmas cards entered the story, and people the world over embraced them. They were ‘free’, beautifully designed, the same card could be sent by email to multiple people, and the time spent on searching store shelves was cut significantly. E-cards were just more convenient, and so paper Christmas cards vanished from people’s homes. A long-standing Christmas tradition is all but dead. Paper cards are still around, but who buys them?

Right here in Jamaica, one artist, Winsome Gibbs, will tell you that some people are really into paper Christmas cards, because the ones that she has been making since last year have been doing well. She is on the path of rekindling interest in them, especially with Jamaican themes.

She has been doing art since 2015, and was inspired by the demand for the paper cards from the hotels, and even more encouraged by the sales at Fontana Pharmacy and The Jamaica Pegasus hotel. She started out with three designs, but because of the demand she now has eight, including a Reggae Girlz theme.

“They are still in demand, there is a niche market, there are people who still want their cards,” Gibbs shared. “Because I am now a distributor of Christmas cards, of course, I am excited. Excited about selling them as well, I am happy.”

Gibbs regards herself as a professional artist, in addition to her regular nine-to-five job as an insurance executive. Her productions, under the name, Gzome Artistry, are not a side hustle, and she has other items on which her artwork is printed. Her intention is to make her art functional and accessible to those who cannot afford a big, “expensive” piece.

“So, I am just using my work to expand into other areas,” Gibbs told The Gleaner at the recent Association of Jamaican Potters’ Art and Christ Fair, where her attractive pieces were on offer. She is not alone in the business, as her son is the marketing and distribution manager; and on Saturday, December 14, her niece, Aalihay Mahfood, was on hand to assist her, as usual.

It is Christmas 2024, and wherever Henry Cole is lying he must be pleased with Winsome Gibbs for perpetuating, right here in Jamaica, a tradition that he had unintentionally started 181 years ago.