Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments

Facts

2011 Product News

• Hallmark offers Keepsake Ornaments that commemorate milestones and nurture memories. In 2011, the line includes ornaments for a baby’s first Christmas, a couple’s first holiday together, and moving into a new home. Ornaments also recognize a variety of special interests and passions, such as cooking, gardening, golf, grilling, and occupations such as teaching and healthcare. Relationships are celebrated in many Keepsake Ornaments designed specifically for family and friends.
• Keepsake Ornaments offer interactive ornaments with games and activities that help build anticipation of the season:
  • Beginning December 1st, you can turn the dial on the base of the “Twas the Month Before Christmas Countdown” ornament each day until Christmas to hear what activities are going on at the North Pole as Santa prepares for Christmas Eve and offers suggestions for festive activities around the house.
  • “The Story of Christmas Advent Countdown” teaches kids the nativity story with words, music and light while counting down the days. Every turn of the ornament base gives a different part of the Christmas story, with the option of hearing a new part daily or enjoying all 25 parts in one sitting.
  • New in 2011, “The Mischievous Hiding Elves” named Jingle and Jangle have bendable arms and legs and are sold as a set. The elves can be separated and hidden in a tree for little ones to find and reassemble.
  • Also new this year, “Lumpy the Coal” ornament is an update of the hot-potato game. Press a button and quickly pass Lumpy around as “Jingle Bells” plays and lights flash. Whoever holds Lumpy when the song ends is out and the game continues.
  • “Hide-‘n’-Seek Pickles” is based on another traditional game – this one from Germany. Hide this motion-sensing ornament in the tree and it calls out hints to searchers, and whoever finds the pickle wins a prize or gets to open the first gift.
  • “Polar Peekbuster” adds suspense to the days before Christmas with motion detectors that trigger flashing lights and humorous warnings to sneaky package peekers. 
• Two interactive ornament and storybook sets enrich the story-time experience. As readers push buttons on the books, the ornaments respond with lights and sound up to 20 feet away. Featured stories are “A Gift for the Baby” – in which the stable animals tell their side of the nativity story – and “Where’s Santa’s Stuff? A Seek & Find Adventure” in which the ornament gives clues to help find Santa’s stuff in the book.
• Simple beauty and grace is the theme of a collection of tastefully elegant ornaments crafted by Keepsake sculptors from premium materials such as porcelain, pewter and glass. These 12 ornaments and one tree topper were inspired by timelessly beautiful designs from Hallmark’s hundred-year history.
• Select ornaments in the 2011 line can be personalized. Several designs, including “Baby’s First Christmas,” can be personalized by adding a photo, while others let users record their own messages. A number of designs come with stickers, such as the six new sports-related ornaments featuring snowmen in action poses, with space to spell out children’s names with personalization stickers.
• With innovative design and sound, seven ornaments bring to life popular holiday hits by the original artists, including “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” performed by Toby Keith, “We Need a Little Christmas” by Percy Faith and “Mele Kalikimaka” by the Blue Hawaiians.
• Keepsakes’ Magic ornaments delight consumers with music, lights and motion:
  • “Jingle Bell Blues” features three cool blues-musician penguins who dance to the music as colored lights flash at their feet.
  • “Santa Comes to Town” plays “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as the scene illuminates and a train circles a Christmas tree, while Santa greets children in a multi-story shopping mall that could only come from the imagination of sculptor Ken Crow.
• Starting in July, ornament collectors get their first chance to get on board Santa’s Holiday Train, a five-ornament collection offered throughout the fall:
  • “Choo-Choo Cheer” and “Happy Helper,” available during Ornament Premier weekend July 16-17. 
  •  “Reindeer Rider,” available September 10.
  • “Cool Caboose,” available October 8.
  • “Penguin Power,” available November 4.
• Also out during Ornament Premier are four new Keepsake Ornaments that can be connected to the Magic Cord, which supports up to seven ornaments. With the touch of a button, one ornament will lead the other connected ornaments in a synchronized sound and light show. Every ornament stays constantly powered when connected to the Magic Cord. The Magic Cord also powers the Wonder & Light ornaments offered in 2010 and 2011.
• Popular licensed properties such as Barbie™, Spider-Man™ and Scooby-Doo™ appear in the 2011 line. A number of ornaments feature characters from popular movies in 2011 such as Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2™, Green Lantern, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 and “Bella, Edward, and Jacob” from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
• Current pop culture and classic licensed properties such as The Office, Peanuts®, Disney, Warner Brothers, The Wizard of Oz, Batman™, Star Trek™, Star Wars™ and Battlestar Galactica™ are represented in the 2011 Keepsake Ornaments line.
• New ornaments for 2011 include “All Aboard Buddy!” from Dinosaur Train, “One Colorful Sled” from Crayola® and “Mickey & Toodles in Space” from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Ornaments based on classic toys include “Little People® Lil’ Movers™ Fire Truck,” “Play Family™ House”, and “Music Box Teaching Clock,” all from Fisher-Price.
• Ornaments kicking off new series in 2011 include:
  • “Up,” first in the Disney/Pixar Legends series.
  • The lovely “Partridge in a Pear Tree” is first in the Twelve Days of Christmas series, in which each ornament will feature a different day’s gift from the traditional song.
  • First in the Angels Around the World series is “Ireland,” an angel bedecked in the traditional garb of the Emerald Isle.
• Two ornaments are final in series in 2011: 
  • “Captain America and The Avengers” is the fourth and final ornament in the Comic Book Heroes series.
  • “Eternal Love” is the sixth and final in the Holiday Angels series.
• Several new ornaments were created to expand the appeal to Hispanic and African-American consumers. These ornaments, available in select stores, include the “!Es Navidad! hoops&yoyo en espanol,” “Quinceañera,” a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, “Reyes Magos,” and “Our Lady of Guadelupe.” “Celebration Barbie™” ornament returns but is also joined by two stunning angels sculpted by Joanne Eschrich – “Wings of Love” and “Prayerful Angel” – and “She’s Got Hat-itude!,” celebrating the fashions of women’s church hats.
• Cars, motorcycles and trains are again well represented in 2011. Sculptor Don Palmiter brings out the 21st in the Classic American Cars series with the “1968 Ford® Mustang GT” ornament. Other ornaments appealing to motor enthusiasts include the “1970 Chevrolet® El Camino™ SS™”, the “2010 VRSC™ V-Rod Muscle®” by Harley-Davidson®, the “726 Berkshire Steam Locomotive” by Lionel®, and the “1957 Chevrolet® Fire Engine.”
• Keepsake Ornaments again give back in 2011 with ornaments that support important causes:
  • With each purchase of the “Believe in Peace” ornament, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF receives $1.01 to help needy children around the world. 
  • A donation of $2 from the sale of each “Angel of Inspiration” ornament goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to support breast cancer programs.

Product History

Christmas trees first appeared in America in the 1700s. Decorated trees were brought to America by Hessians – German mercenary soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War – but didn’t become widely popular until people saw the ornaments brought to America by families emigrating from Germany and England in the 1840s.

In 1973, Hallmark introduced a small line of six glass ball ornaments and 12 yarn figures as the first collection of Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments. The longest-running current ornament series is Frosty Friends, now in its 32nd year. Since the line’s inception, Hallmark has introduced more than 3,000 Keepsake Ornaments and more than 100 ornament series.

More than 500 local chapters of the national Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club are active in the United States and Canada.

In Stores

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