The idea of a Christmas seal was conceived by a Danish postal clerk and the first Christmas Seal was issued by Denmark in 1904 to raise money for tuberculosis. In the same year, Sweden and Iceland also issued Christmas Seals. The first U.S. Christmas seal was issued in 1907.
Emily Bissell, a Red Cross worker, designed a simple red and white seal to raise money to save a local TB sanatorium. She had heard about the success of Christmas seal sales for TB in Denmark and thought the idea was worth trying.
She designed a simple red and white seal for the first year and was so successful that in 1908 the American Red Cross ran the campaign on a national basis. The Red Cross issued seals every year until 1919 when the National Tuberculosis Association took over. With the decline in tuberculosis, the name was changed in 1968 to the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association. And in 1973, the name was changed to the current name of the American Lung Association.
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