Gömul Jólakort
Old Yule Cards

One of the things that characterizes a people are the cards they send to each other on holidays and other occasions. The national psyche is reflected in these cards, and they are, or at least used to be, different from one country to another.

In bringing these examples to the web for your enjoyment, Yule in Iceland is fortunate enough to have been able to draw upon the resources of Þorsteinn Pálsson, one of Iceland's foremost collectors of Yule cards.

The Yule cards you will view here are mainly from the years 1910 through 1930, when enormous numbers of these captivating cards were sent. As you will easily observe, the printing presses and paper guillotines of those days were not of the quality with which we are familiar today. We have left them as they are however, askew, and even the obverse offset on the front in some cases, considering this a large measure of their charm.

One of the things that characterizes Icelandic Yule cards are the poems, hymns, or psalms which are often printed on the front. The same design often bore a multitude of different poems. There are many examples of these on the following pages, which we have translated with the intent of conveying their sentiment rather than the exact wording.

We hope you enjoy these examples of old Icelandic Yule cards. We have also added several examples of New Year's cards.

These buttons will help you to navigate through old Yule cards:

The "NEXT" button will move you onward,
the "BACK" button will take you back a Yule card.

So get the show on the road already: