Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments

Facts

2012 Product News

• Hallmark offers Keepsake Ornaments that commemorate milestones and nurture memories. In 2012, 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, camping, 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 first, turn the dial on the "North Pole Countdown" to hear updates from the North Pole counting down the days to Christmas.
  • The "Countdown to Jesus' Birthday" ornament plays the Happy Birthday song and counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to Jesus' birthday. And the "Countdown to Christmas" ornament plays music from "Here Comes Santa" while counting down.
  • On "Voice Changing Elf" push a button to record and change any voice into an elfy voice or push the button on "Naughty or Nice" to see the ornament illuminate and hear who's naughty and nice.
  • "Christmas Wisecracker" will tell nutty jokes once you press his button.
  • "Darth Vader Peekbuster" adds suspense to the days before Christmas with a motion detectors that triggers one of nine alert messages from Darth Vader himself.
• "The Christmas Star Storybook and Ornament Set" is an interactive ornament and storybook set that enriches the story-time experience. While reading the coordinating story, readers can press the button on the star remote control to light up the ornament and play soft, magical star sounds up to 20 feet away.
• The Beautiful collection is back with brand new designs featuring 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 the use of mixed material and classic and modern design elements.
• Many ornaments in the 2012 line can be personalized. Several like "Best Dog," "Purrfect Cat" and "Our Family" can be personalized by adding a photo, while others let users record their own messages. A number of designs come with personalization stickers, such as the four new All-Star sports-related ornaments featuring penguins in sporting mode with space to spell out children's names.
• With innovative design and sound, several ornaments bring to life popular holiday hits by the original artists, including "Let's Get It On" performed by Marvin Gaye, "The Hamster Dance Song" by Hampton the Hamster and "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" by Gayla Peevey.
• Keepsakes' Magic ornaments delight consumers with music, lights and motion.
  • "Merry Christmas to All" plays "Up on the Housetop" and the scene illuminates as Santa and his reindeer make their deliveries.
  • "Deck the House" puts on a vibrant light show as music builds to a theatrical grand finale.
• Ornament collectors get their chance to collect Mickey and the gang in the Ready! Set! Snow! collection, beginning in July and offered throughout the fall:
  • "Sled-Pullin' Pluto" and "Downhill-Dashin' Mickey," available during Ornament Premiere weekend July 14 and 15.
  • "Cool Duck Donald," available September 8.
  • "Snow Stylin' Goofy," available during Ornament Debut weekend October 6 and 7.
  • "Merry Mittens Minnie," available November 2.
• Popular licensed properties such as Barbie™, Spider-Man™ and Scooby-Doo™ appear in the 2012 line. A number of ornaments feature characters from popular movies in 2012 such as The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, characters from The Avengers including "Captain America," "Thor," and "Iron Man," and "Edward and Bella's Wedding" from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.
• Current pop culture and classic licensed properties such as Peanuts®, favorite Disney characters, Looney Tunes, "E.T.," "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone With the Wind," "Star Trek™," and "Star Wars™" are represented in the 2012 Keepsake Ornaments line.
• Ornaments kicking off new series in 2012 include:
  • "Cookie Cutter Christmas," which features a sweet snowmouse enjoying fun holiday activities inside a festive cookie cutter.
  • Add some seaside calm to the tree with "Holiday Lighthouse," a first in series that continually flashes light from the tower and softly glows from the lighthouse keeper's quarters (powered by the Magic Cord, sold separately).
  • "Magician Mickey" is first in the "Mickey's Movie Mouseterpieces" series. Each of the ornaments in this series will feature Mickey Mouse in a scene from a classic animated film.
• Four ornaments are final in series in 2012:
  • "Peace on Earth" is the third and final in the Windows of Faith series.
  • The special 2012 "Celebration Barbie" is the 13th and final in the ornament series.
  • "Matinee Fashion Barbie" is the 19th and final in the Barbie Ornament series.
  • "1972 XRTT 750 Road Racer" is the 14th and final in the Miniature Harley-Davidson® Motorcycles series.
• Several new ornaments were created to expand the appeal to Hispanic and African-American consumers.
  • These ornaments, available in select stores, include "!Regalos! !Regalos! !Regalos!" featuring fan favorites hoops&yoyo speaking in Spanish, "Quinceañera," a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday, "Amor Divino" which features a sweet angel scene, "Our Lady of Guadalupe," and "!Feliz Navidad!".
  • The African-American collection of ornaments include "Golden Messenger" and "Joyful Messenger" a female and male angel pair, "Looking Good for the Lord," celebrating the fashions of women's church hats, "Three Little Angels," and "Go Tell it On the Mountain" a piano that plays the gospel favorite and "Jolly Santa."
• Cars, motorcycles and trains are again well represented in 2012. The "1977 Pontiac Trans Am Special Edition" is 22nd in the Classic American Cars series. Other ornaments appealing to motor enthusiasts include the "1966 Ford F-100," the "2011 Street Glide FLHX" by Harley-Davidson®, the "Lionel Nutcracker Route Christmas Train Locomotive" by Lionel® and the "1936 Ford Fire Engine."
• Keepsake Ornaments again give back in 2012. A donation of $2 from the sale of each "Angel of Grace" ornament goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to support breast cancer programs.
• Fans were given a chance to help choose a 2012 Keepsake Ornament via an online vote. Voters chose a favorite character, which season the character would be dressed for and picked from a long list of potential accessories. Once the votes were tallied Keepsake Artist Tracy Larsen, created "Merry Chris-Moose."
• 2012 Dream Book Free app for iPad® — More than 300 new Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments can be viewed and added to a Wish List in the digital 2012 Dream Book. The app includes behind-the-scenes video clips featuring Keepsake artists, the latest Keepsake Ornament news, audio samples and 360° views of selected ornaments.

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 33rd 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

The majority of Keepsake Ornaments are available at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores nationwide. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.