Christmas

2009 Product News

• More than 2,000 individual Christmas cards, including the popular Cards With Sound that play favorite Christmas songs and audio clips from holiday movies and TV shows, Recordable Cards that allow the sender to record a 10-second message prior to a pre-recorded song, and new DVD Greetings that enable the sender to create a customized slide show using their own photos to send with a card.
• Other innovative cards including Cards With Motion that play a fully animated two-second scene when tipped from side to side, and lighted cards (some of which also play music).
• Hallmark.com offers paper cards and e-cards that can be personalized with photos, messages and sounds. 
• More than 400 culturally relevant cards including more than 100 Mahogany cards for African Americans and more than 300 Hallmark Sinceramente cards for Hispanic consumers. Both lines also offer Cards With Sound.
• Hallmark (PRODUCT) RED™ and UNICEF cards provide a way for consumers to give back during the holidays. A portion of the sales of (PRODUCT) RED cards support the Global Fund, which fights AIDS in Africa, and a portion of the sale of UNICEF cards help improve the lives of children around the world.
• More than 380 Christmas boxed card designs. Cards offer many extras including some with sound or motion, some to which photos can be added, and many that can be imprinted in stores with the senders’ names.
• Six gift wrap collections featuring papers with foils and glitter, bags with attachments such as ribbons and die-cut paper shapes, and dozens of accessories to dress up a package including tags, snowflakes, pine cones, bows and ribbons. Some gift bags feature light and/or sound. A new Peek-buster gift trim detects when someone tries to peek, and sounds an alarm to let them know they’ve been caught in the act.
• More than 300 all-new Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments featuring four new series, dozens of favorite licensed characters, and lots of magic – including ornaments with sound, motion and lights.
• Hundreds of holiday gifts and decorations including Swinging with Snoopy, a plush Snoopy that plays a piano while lights blink, Caroling Cottages that can be played individually or connected together to play music and light up in tandem, The Night Before Christmas Recordable Storybook that enables the gift giver to record his or her voice reading the story, and a Musical Christmas Tree with twinkling lights synchronized to music.
• With the new holiday Digital Scrapbook, consumers upload their personal photos to pre-designed backgrounds on a special web site, adding sentiments and music to coordinate with their photos.
• Other gifts include a singing Fun in the Fridge Snowman, Santa’s Magic Pen and Book set, snow globes – many with light, motion and sound; plush characters including more from the Peanuts gang; holiday cookie plates, countdown calendars and ornaments; books; gourmet chocolates and foods; photo frames; Instant Scrapbooks; and Hallmark Gold Crown® gift cards.
• Everything needed for a festive holiday party including distinctive paper partyware patterns and unique invitations, doilies, and decorative accessories.

Holiday History

Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrated around the world commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the third century, efforts were made to find out the date of the Nativity, but only in the year 336 A.D. was the date of the Dec. 25 festival set in commemoration of Jesus’ birth. Pope Julius formally selected Dec. 25 as the day of Christmas in 349 A.D.

Roman Catholics, Lutherans, members of the Dutch Reformed and Anglican churches, and those of the German sects were most responsible for establishing Christmas traditions in America. Christmas customs spread with the westward expansion of the United States and by the late 1800s had become firmly entrenched in American society.

In Stores

Available at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores nationwide. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.