What's On

Online Talk: Victorian Christmas Cards

Perhaps you spread a warm Christmas glow with cards showing Santa and candle-lit Christmas trees? Have you thought about sending seasons greetings with talking vegetables, creepy cats and rotting robins? Perhaps deforestation in colonial Australia or evil Christmas puddings are more your style? The Victorians loved the festive season and created a new tradition of sending Christmas cards by important illustrators such as Kate Greenaway and Alice Havers. Victorian cards often included the bizarre and creepy with everything from murderous mice to feisty frogs marking the season. So, just why were Victorian Christmas cards so odd? Join Dr Emma Liggins and Dr Rachel Dickinson to celebrate the weird and wonderful of this most Victorian of Christmas traditions.

This event is being run in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections Museum as part of a project to promote and celebrate some of the 32,000 cards from their Laura Seddon Collection of Victorian and Edwardian Greetings Cards. The Laura Seddon Collection is one of the largest, and most comprehensive, sources for the study of 19th century greetings cards, and holds some of the earliest and rarest examples of commercial cards.

‘The online talks have been a regular highlight.‘ Visitor to online events.

Thursday 1 December, 7-8pm

Tickets £5

The talk will be approx 45 mins long, with time for a short question session afterwards.

**NB Refer to your e-ticket for joining instructions and links. Please check spam/junk folders, in case emails are diverted there. Ticket sales will cease one hour before the event starts. **

If you have any questions about this event, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.

If you would like to support the house you can buy some Christmas gifts from our online shop via this link.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is run by Manchester Historic Buildings Trust (charity no. 1080606) and all money gained through private tours, talks, room hire and ticket sales goes towards the ongoing maintenance and running costs of the house. If you would like to support the House with an additional donation you can do so via this link.