Pandemic-Themed Christmas Tree Ornaments In High Demand

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- In a holiday season like no other, Christmas trees are taking on some new mementos of 2020. Pandemic-themed ornaments are among the season's most popular buys in South Florida and across the nation.

Emergency room doctor Katrina Green has ten on her tree in Nashville, Tennessee. More are on the way.

"You know I thought, why not just play around with it?" she said.

Dr. Green's collection includes an ornament of Santa Claus wearing a face mask that reads "Merry Christmask 2020" and another that resembles a Yelp review giving 2020 a half star with the comment "Would not recommend."

Kelly Bara's novelty goods warehouse Mugsby is in overdrive as her Texas-based team works on 35,000 now-sold out pandemic ornaments. The decoration features a face mask-wearing family, a COVID-19 virus, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer bottle.

OrnamentShop.Com co-owner Wayne Doleski says he's never seen a concentrated demand like this.

The Ohio-based retailer has about 6,000 personalized ornaments to choose from, and a quarter of his sales in recent weeks have been pandemic-related.

"If you want to have some lighthearted nature to your existence about what's been going on, it's a way to do that in a small way," Doleski says.

Ornament vendors say hopefully these tokens of 2020 will be something people look back on in better times.