Say Cheese

The practice of photo Christmas cards dates back to at least 1891 when Annie Oakley (Google her if you don’t know) mailed a pic of herself from Scotland as holiday greetings.

However it wasn’t till the turn of the 20th century when the practice became a little more common. More economical, mass marketed Brownie cameras allowed middle class Americans to become photographers.

The 1960s marked a boom period for the practice of sending family-photo cards. These may have seen their heyday with the advent of social media and the ease in which photographs can now be sent.

Helping commemorate the tradition is Marvel’s resident shutterbug, er, shutter-arachnid, Spider-Man.