Sending Warm Wishes: Pandemic Greeting Cards for Any Occasion

Honestly, in the three years I’ve been working at Scout (and the many years I’ve been shopping at Scout before that), pandemic greeting cards is a category that never crossed my mind. We’re always expanding our offerings so we can help people find that perfect card for the tough stuff, the big birthdays, the life-altering events, and the immense spectrum of beautiful people who come into Scout looking for the perfect pick for their well wishes. Then 2020 hit and we added "pandemic” to that long list of genres. As with every category we bring in, our small makers are offering up some really great picks!

You’ve been loving on Dear Hancock, Gotamago, Party Mountain, La Familia Green, The Good Twin, Hartland Brooklyn and oh so many more for your pandemic greetings, whether you were gifting a card when we could be near(ish) our loved ones in the summer or sending one in the mail with the warmest wishes in place of our usual big hugs. Here, we’ve gathered some best-sellers and some new to the online store selections to help you explore some of our more pandemic-related card picks.

Local Warm Wishes

While we have lots of local cards in store, these unique card picks from Toronto makers are the perfect fit for this pandemic moment. Smitten Kitten's Miss Your Face card offers a little laugh (that skeleton's dual boredom and sadness is super relatable, no?) while JooJoo Paper's Thinking of You card delivers a little smile by adorable pigeon post. East end maker Gotamago offers picks with no plastic sleeves for those looking to curb packaging. We love the Miso You So Much card for sending some warm, comforting thoughts or adding to a porch drop of delicious food to friends in your lockdown region. Gotamago's Toronto Lines card is also a sweet option to send to those outside of the city (or those missing it). Mark a little heart on the map where you're sending warm wishes from if you happen to be in this area of the downtown core, or perhaps mark a heart to flag a place you both hold close to your heart with fond memories.

Greeting Cards That Give Back

Founded in Portland, Oregon by Alicia Heater and transplanted to Oceanside, California, Slightly Stationery designs and sustainably prints colourful cards to send lots of smiles while donating a portion of their proceeds to the Malala Fund to help send girls around the world to school. We recently beefed up our offerings from Slightly, including some perfect pandemic love picks. Leave a little love note on someone's pillow, tape it to the mirror, or hey, maybe you've gotten super comfy and you're thinking somewhere near the toilet is the best spot for some new reading material. For friends or partners who have (so far) survived these stay-at-home orders with minimal conflict, this Survived Quarantine card is the perfect pick to recognize it might be a forever kind of love. Slightly's All the Feelings card offers a colourful combination to share some warm and fuzzies and their Love Doing Nothing card is the exact sentiment I'm feeling on these cold, snowy (pandemic) days—not to mention this couch looks very comfy-chic. (For those who may be curious about the pen, yes, we have it in stock, too!) 

Quarantine Birthday Greetings

It's just about official—almost all of us have "celebrated" a pandemic birthday. While my family claims this year doesn't count because we didn't see each other blow out the candles (we may be in denial about aging), a pandemic doesn't stop a birthday but these cards feel a little extra appropriate during these times. The Birthday Wish tarot-inspired card from Ash and Chess offers a picture-perfect at-home celebration full of colour and parcels—it may be missing people but consider adding a little IOU two birthday hugs for next year. Toronto-based Party Mountain's Jerry birthday card is our personal top pick for those who don't really see the big deal in birthdays anyway and are maybe experiencing their best low-key birthday yet under quarantine. Next up, The Good Twin's Sending Smiles birthday card is delivering the joy, while Goose Fight for Ohh Deer's Made You a Cake card calls out the biggest problem with Zoom birthdays—we all want a slice of that cake! Dear Hancock has a lot of pandemic-perfect picks to choose from (including their Owe You a Hug birthday card) but this With You in Spirit card featuring their signature bunny, fun pun, and no plastic sleeve feels like the right trifecta to round out our pandemic birthday card picks.

 For Giving Gratitude

It's a little tough for me to see silver linings lately, but offering a card filled to the brim with messages of gratitude can be the perfect pick-me-up to its recipient. Plus, who doesn't love fun (non-bill or flyer) mail? For the friends and family members that you've been griping to all pandemic and they still haven't blocked your number, our Emily McDowell Talk in Circles card offers a great starting point to all your sentiments before you head back into that usual loop. Our Heiday's Thankful for Your Presence card is my favourite pick for that someone who can just sit with you in silence in those tough times, no judgment, and just be there—they're the best kind of person and during this pandemic, it sometimes feels like we're more thankful for them now than ever. Next up, Chicago-based La Familia Green has perfectly meshed our quarantine hobbies with a simple message of gratitude with this Needlepoint Thank You card (and of course, that's DMC thread). Last but most certainly not least at all are the Thank You Doctor and Thank You Nurse cards to recognize our neighbours, loved ones, and essential support teams offering so much to us right now. We are so grateful. Send a handwritten note inside and address the envelope to "Any Doctor or Nurse" at a hospital, hospice, or care facility near you to spread a little extra kindness.

Send a Smile Just Because

I am a very big fan of cards and narrowing down our "just because" category selection of pandemic greeting cards truly felt like one harrowing feat. I'm a softie for smiles, rainbows, and colourful good cheer and well, the finalists are certainly falling into that category, but if that's not your style, we have lots more to browse here. Clearly with my cat Bea needing to be around all the excitement while I photographed, I'm of course a cat fan and Yeppie Paper stole my heart with this Miss You With All My Heart cat card (just look at those sweet puffy cheeks!) and sealed the deal with their Hug My Beastie card (the sandals get me every time!). New Jersey-based Lucky Horse Press is also an easy go-to for sending some fun retro cheer, including the Home With You card for your quarantine pals and the Thinking of You Makes Me Smile card for your pals in their own separate quarantine quarters. Hartland Brooklyn's rainbow die-cut You Brighten My Day card rounds out our picks for sending smiles and I highly recommend continuing the theme by writing in a rainbow of colours inside, just to add to the fun!

Lots More in (Our Online) Store

As always, we have plenty more to offer than we can fit into a blog post, so we encourage you to get cozy, explore our greeting cards selection (filter by theme to narrow down the scroll), and drop those perfect picks in your cart. Pro tip: If you’re a little forgetful of dates, now can be a real difficult time to get a card quick. Having some boxed cards on hand can help in a pinch and we have some great picks in that area as well, from our Birthday Box to our Thank You Box, Life’s Occasions card kit, and plenty more.

Honourable mentions go to the Instagram crowd favourite 6 Feet Apart Penguins card (yay rainbows and hug IOUs!), Go Inside Sloth card (yay yummy chips!) and Wears Mask, Washes Hands Raccoon card (yay basic pandemic hygiene!)—all perfect for sending some love and support, maybe with a side of sad, whatever the moment brings. We're still offering our direct to recipient card writing services, too, so feel free to add a note in your cart of what you'd like us to write inside and we'll mail it out for you!

Have a favourite small or local card maker you think we should carry? Give them a little shout-out in the comments below, so we can check them out! Bonus if they have some unique pandemic greeting cards to offer.