All it took for Kristen Hope’s holiday card to materialize was a friend’s message on Twitter depicting the enormous disposable face mask adorning the facade of the Science Museum of Virginia. The museum is about 100 miles south of Ms. Hope’s home in Arlington, Va.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that would make a great Christmas card, especially because we didn’t really do much in terms of family vacations this year,” said Ms. Hope, 48, a stay-at-home mother of a 14-year-old and 12-year-old twins. “We were bored one Saturday, so we grabbed our selfie stick, jumped in the car, took a photo, got back in the car and drove home.”
A former research librarian who diligently keeps her address list up-to-date, Ms. Hope ordered cards from Minted (“Happy Holidays From Our Quaranteam To Yours”) and plans to send them around Thanksgiving. Her only regret? Leaving the backside blank.
“I should have put a little asterisk that said, ‘We didn’t go inside. We used a selfie stick. We had our masks with us,’” she said.
Like Ms. Hope, Elise Miller has always been a holiday-card devotee. She has traditionally tapped a photographer friend to shoot bright, elegantly composed family portraits.
By contrast, this year’s card, which she purchased through Minted, is a screenshot.
“We had been Zooming with our family so much,” said Ms. Miller, 52, who works at the Conference on World Affairs at The University of Colorado, Boulder. “And one day, I was looking at screen and I thought, ‘You know what, we should just take a picture because this would be a great holiday card.’”
