Here's my wish to all our readers for a lovely, peaceful, healthy new year!
In looking around for images, it seems new year's cards were popular right after the beginning of the twentieth century. I can't find anything earlier. So I poked around a bit more and discovered that the first celebration of January 1 as the new year (previously, most people used the winter solstice or March 1) was about 153 BC. January had only been around a few hundred years at that point, and the efficient Romans chose January 1 as the beginning of their civil year--a good time for a holiday, obviously!
So enjoy the new year as merrily as these gentleman, then curl up with a good book and stay warm.