I have curated a copyright-free collection of wonderful vintage Christmas images to download and use as you want. Whether that is for decorations, crafts or even to make your own Christmas cards.
Celebrating Christmas is a relatively modern phenomenon. It’s only since the late 19th century that Christmas became a holiday and the biggest annual celebration that we know today.
I know that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ but it was the Victorians that invented the way we celebrate the holiday today.
Queen Victorias German husband Albert introduced many festive traditions that we celebrate today such as decorated Christmas trees. The first Christmas card was designed by Henry Cole in 1843. The tradition of sending a card soon caught on, by the 1880s over 11 million Christmas cards was produced
Victorians also introduced the notion of Christmas becoming centered around the family. With the traditional family Christmas dinner, decorations, gift-giving and parlor games.
Many think Charles Dickens invented the Victorian Christmas. He didn’t, but his popular book A Christmas Carol helped spread the Christmas message that is still relevant today of family, charity, peace and goodwill to all men.
To download and print the vintage Christmas image you want just click on the title above the image and it should download automatically to your device.
You can then either, print the image, save it to your hard drive or send it off to an online printing company. Many of these companies offer gift printing services as well as traditional paper prints.
For example, the vintage Christmas image could be printed on to a pillow as I did with the personalized map pillows.
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The Vintage Christmas Pictures
1. Santa Claus Sugar Plums
This is a vintage Christmas image for a 1968 advert of sugar plums. Sugar plum is now a pretty defunct term.
The Oxford dictionary defines a sugar plum is a comfit. That is a seed, nut, or scrap of spice coated with a layer of hard sugar, like the crunchy outer case of an M&M. Comfits are thought to be one of the world’s oldest sugar sweets.
There is also a reference to sugar plums in the Christmas themed ballet “The Nutcracker“. One of the dances is called “the dance of the sugar plum fairy.”
2. Merry Christmas Typography
This is a wonderful piece of Christmas typography (1876) published by Currier & Ives. I love the acorns and other foliage wrapped around the text. This would be a great vintage Christmas image to colour in.
3. Christmas Menu Sign
Vintage Christmas images of Santa clause and Christmas motifs in the dinner menu of Tulane Hotel, Nashville (1900).
4. Vintage Christmas Images Santa in Cart
Another vintage Christmas image from a 1900 menu, this one showing Santa in a present laden cart.
5. Christmas Sled With Holy
A 1907 vintage Christmas card image of a Christmas sled in the snow-laden with holy.
Holly, like ivy and mistletoe, is a wintergreen plant that was used in pagan times to celebrate the Winter Solstice and to ward off evil spirits. The holy is a symbol as it also closely bears the crown. Its spiny leaves and red berries link to Jesus’ crown of thorns.
6. 1901 Vintage Christmas Image Father Christmas
This vintage Christmas image of Father Christmas depicts him in his usual look of a portly, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white fur collar and cuffs.
7. Vintage Father Christmas in Green 1909
In the past vintage Christmas images of Father Christmas sometimes depicted him in a green coat rather than a red one. Today images of Father Christmas nearly always show him wearing red robes.
8. 1901 Vintage Christmas Images Santa Chimney
Another image of Santa in his red robes. This time he is carrying a sack of presents getting ready to descend down the chimney.
This idea of Santa Claus coming down the chimney was then popularized by the 1823 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” also known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
9. Vintage Christmas Images Wreath
This is another vintage Christmas image from a menu, this time a wreath of holy leaves.
If you loved these vintage Christmas images don’t forget to check out these other fabulous collections on Pictureboxblue.com
These are lovely, Claire. Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm! Pinning!
Thank you, you’re welcome.
I love that typography one, wouldn’t it make a lovely card?
Nice to see a green cloaked Santa too. Pinning 🙂
Thank you, yes the typography is fabulous. It would be good to colour in.
I really enjoyed this nostalgic tour of images from Christmas’ long ago. Enjoyed your narrative for each one as well. Pinned 🙂
Thank you, I do like looking into the history of vintage images.
These are gorgeous! I’ve featured them today at the TFT link party. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much, I look forward to seeing them.