Nothing says Happy New Year like a bug looking through a telescope

While Christmas cards these days usually feature the family posed in front of a lovely winter backdrop or a generic image of Santa Claus, seasonal greetings used to be collected like hockey cards or paintings, and featured anything from a bug looking through a telescope, to a lobster for Christmas dinner. 

"A lot of the Christmas cards were kind of considered little pieces of art that they'd want to put in scrapbooks and then show to their friends," said Christine Lovelace, head of the University of New Brunswick's archives and special collections. 

UNB has been sharing the hundreds of old Christmas card scrapbooks in its collection on social media over the holiday season.

The collection includes sets of cards sent to Canadian poet Bliss Carman, who was born in Fredericton and lived from 1861 to 1929. It also includes a collection from librarian Beatrice Welling, who amassed cards from Canadian artists.

Some of the cards in the UNB collection were made by New Brunswickers, while others came from across Atlantic Canada and the United States. 

"Because they show a connection between people, they do hold a certain amount of interest and inspiration for us today," said Lovelace. 

"To look back at all these beautifully done cards and think about the thought that went into sending them and then to the interest in them to collect them and keep them in the book and keep them year after year after year."

Christmas cards were so popular in the 1870s and '80s that they would actually be reviewed in newspapers, like movies and TV shows today. 

And it went well beyond Christmas, according to Lovelace. People would send out New Year's cards and Easter cards as well. Basically, if there was a celebration, people would send a special card. 

There were even specific scrapbooks designed exclusively for showing off holiday cards, and the cards themselves were affordable, making them easy to collect.

"Because they were considered little pieces of art, it was something that a lot of young ladies of a certain age would do," said Lovelace. 

"Some [were] just bought to be saved as art, but a lot of them would have a little message on the back."

The Fredericton Region Museum also has a collection of Christmas cards from the late 1800s and early 1900s, collected by New Brunswick families. 

Melynda Jarratt, a member of the exhibits committee for the museum, said old Christmas postcards make for more than just a neat collection. They tell the story of the people who sent them.