FtV – America's First Christmas Card
New England Legends Podcast
Jeff Belanger
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to New England Legends From the Vault – FtV Episode 145 – Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts, searching for the factory that produced America's first Christmas cards. Back in 1875, Louis Prang took a chance that Americans might want to send Christmas cards like they do in Europe. His risk paid off. Within a few years 5 million cards per year were leaving his Roxbury factory, and sending holiday cards became an institution. Jeff and Ray wish you the happiest of holidays! This episode first aired December 22, 2022
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome, legendary listeners. |
| 0:01.6 | Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. |
| 0:06.1 | Look for a new episode every week. |
| 0:07.8 | Now, can you go back and listen on your own at our New Englandledges.com? |
| 0:11.5 | You bet. |
| 0:12.2 | But you won't get the added bonus of an after-the-legion segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. |
| 0:20.7 | So let's open up the New England Legends Vault and revisit another legendary episode. Hey kids, welcome to the Vault. So glad to have you here in the Vault. Here's what's going on. Ray and I are going to be taking a couple of weeks off. Happy holidays. Yep. Hope you're having a great holiday. We're going to have some vaults to |
| 0:37.8 | tide you over to get you through. Can't leave you with nothing. No, of course. So there'll be |
| 0:42.9 | every Monday and Thursday, there'll be vaults until January 8th. January 8th, we'll be back with an |
| 0:48.1 | all-new episode so we can spend some time with our families, reload a little bit. Rest. Get some sleep, Jeff, will you? |
| 0:55.2 | Get some sleep. We're going to do all that stuff. But I hope you're having a great holiday. |
| 0:59.5 | And this was America's first Christmas card. First Air December 22nd, 2022. |
| 1:08.6 | Hey, Ray. What's you up to? |
| 1:10.5 | Just writing out some Christmas cards. |
| 1:12.4 | Really? I mean, writing actual cards to people? |
| 1:15.5 | Okay, I'm signing the family photo card that we had printed in bulk online. |
| 1:19.9 | Okay, I get it. |
| 1:21.3 | You know, some people don't even do that. |
| 1:22.9 | They just let the online service print the card, stuff the envelope, |
| 1:26.2 | print the address from a spreadsheet right on to the envelope, add the stamp, mail it, boom, outsourced holiday cheer. |
| 1:32.1 | Well, it is the thought that counts, right? |
| 1:33.7 | No, it actually is. |
... |
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