Virtual Mother’s Day Card Options For Those Who Have To Celebrate From A Distance

When they're not luxurious ways to pamper our mothers, Mother's Day gifts are a corny ritual that usually involves personalized trinkets with sappy messages and globs of glue that only a mother could love. And they're great for it — What better way to thank our mothers than to remind them of what helpless children we'd be without them? The Mother's Day card is also a reliable classic. Traditionally, they're projects involving macaroni or a trip down the greeting card aisle. Then there's the obligatory tray for breakfast in bed or basket of beauty products. In short, there is always something to beef-up the card, but the card is what says, "Happy Mother's Day."

So what do you do when a lockdown keeps you from celebrating this endearing ritual? If you can afford it, do try to find a fun and substantial gift to send you your mother, but for that element of nostalgia, turn to the virtual Mother's Day card: A somewhat sappy declaration of your love she can receive directly in her inbox.

Here are a few places where you can pick and customize a virtual Mother's Day card.

Every family is different. In some, the Hallmark card is a big no-no, but in others, it's a key ritual that makes holidays feel more like holidays. Say, you stopped to think about your Mother's Day strategy and instantly relaxed at the thought of just mailing her a card. Awesome, at least some things can still be done the old-fashioned way despite lockdowns.

But wait, how are you going to get your hands on a Mother's Day card in order to mail it? The answer is, you don't. And if you're just looking into this, it's almost too late to order one online, fill it out, and mail it on time for Mother's Day. E-cards are the best alternative and Hallmark has a whole section of e-cards with animations and music that you can customize. However, in order to send a Hallmark e-card, you do have to have a membership, which costs $5 a month and can be canceled at any time.

Yes, the music is cheesy and the transitions are terribly uncool, but Mother's Day is all about those kinds of corny displays of affection. You can use services like MotionDen to put together a slideshow tribute to your mom. While MotionDen is a paid service,  your first video is free (and every video thereafter is only $9).

You start by choosing a template (MotionDen has some specific Mother's Day ones) and you will then be told to gather a certain number of images and write captions to fit the template. The rest is taken care of and in the end, you'll get a custom slideshow synched to music. You don't need to stick to the Mother's Day templates, in fact, you can get creative by choosing some of the quirkier templates for a funnier result. 

Animoto's free service is here to help the burgeoning director in you.  Animoto lets you upload your own videos and images, then drag-and-drop them into its in-site video editor. You also have access to a suite of stock imagery, in case you want to turn this tribute video into a game of "Which Of These Memories Are Fake."

If you seek to give your mom a serious, heartfelt video, Animoto has examples to get ideas from and dedicated blog posts to guide you through the process of making a video for mom.