Over 75 Years of Holiday Card Innovation
Since the 1940s, MoMA has invited artists to create delightful, original and unexpected designs for our Holiday Card Program. Over the years, the designs have evolved from flat cards to pop-up and 3D paper-engineered cards.
Staying true to our mission of offering products that marry functionality with beautiful, innovative design, our holiday cards are more like art objects than ordinary cards. We seek out cards from both established and emerging artists, choosing original, extraordinary designs that are unlike any that are on offer from other retailers. The process of each card begins with the artist hand-assembling the prototype, which is then reviewed by our team. When the cards are ready for production, each one is printed and meticulously handcrafted. These artist-created cards are made for sending greetings for Christmas, Hanukkah, the New Year and the general holiday season. Most of the cards have a greeting printed inside but some, like those featuring work by MoMA collection artists, are blank—so senders can include personalized messages.
How We Choose Our Artist-Designed Holiday Cards
Each year begins with an open call to established and emerging artists: Send us your best holiday card designs. After several rounds of reviews by our selection committee over the course of months, we make our decisions based on the following criteria: innovative and experimental uses of paper, new interpretations of traditional holiday motifs and themes, witty sophistication and elements of surprise. Every holiday season we strive to create a diverse collection of cards with a variety of themes, colors, interactive features and construction techniques that come together to embrace the spirit of the holidays.
“Dogs on Parade” by Aimee Hucek
“So many people I’ve encountered in my travels were accompanied by dogs of all shapes and sizes, many of which were dressed up in colorful sweaters and coats,” observes Hucek. “I thought it would be fun to create a card where all different types of dogs were heading to their own holiday party, bearing gifts and dressed in their best holiday finery.”
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“Snowman Ornament” by Rob Kelly
“I was inspired to create this paper ornament card after admiring a shoebox full of vintage glass and plastic decorations left to me by my grandparents,” explains Kelly. “Many of these shiny baubles were bold, colorful, geometric shapes with little holiday dioramas cut into them. For this card, I captured a bit of that magic in a paper ornament which could be folded flat and reused for years to come as a keepsake decoration.”
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