A holiday card created by Robert Indiana (from his LOVE screenprint) was popular in the late 1960s.

Every year since 1954, we have introduced a new line of holiday cards created by artists and designers from around the world. MoMA’s holiday card program was initiated by the Museum’s Junior Council affiliate group, which was founded five years earlier as a way to “bring together a group of younger people who have…a desire to see the [arts] fostered soundly and liberally.” (The Junior Council subsequently evolved into MoMA’s Contemporary Arts Council.)

What the Junior Council started over fifty years ago has become the responsibility of MoMA’s Retail department, which has continued to develop the program every year since. Many well-known artists and designers have been commissioned to create MoMA holiday cards over the years, including Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Ben Shahn, and Joseph Cornell.

For the 2009 selections, the Retail department met over several months to pare over three hundred entries down to the final group of twenty-seven new cards for this holiday season. A final selection was made from entries from as far away as Japan and as close as New York. As in previous years, we wanted to create a diverse collection of cards with a variety of themes, colors, interactive features, and construction techniques. In addition to new pop-up cards by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, this year’s line also includes cards featuring Santa and Rudolph in a New York City taxicab, a skiing Santa, a penguin couple, a herd of reindeer, a group of snowmen decorating a tree, a pyramid of elves, and more. We also selected cards for celebrating Hanukkah, the New Year, and the general holiday season. And every holiday card purchase supports MoMA’s programs!

A&B Designs' Penguin Duo holiday card