Yes, it’s only August, but Hallmark ornaments are already out for purchase at stores. I freely admit that I’m one of the people that’s in the store as soon as I see that cute little Christmas display. I run inside and start checking to see which ones light up and which ones make noise. There is a chance that the folks at my local store see me coming and roll their eyes, because I have to press every button and hear each sound effect and every famous line spoken by the characters I love. A few weeks ago, back at San Diego Comic-Con, Hallmark had a wonderful booth set up with all their latest releases. The coolest part was the sneak peek of ornaments that aren’t due out until Christmas of 2012.
If Star Wars isn’t your speed, what about a car that will take you Back to the Future? There will be a DeLorean ornament available next year and I’m sort of hoping that there will be a secret button that will activate a teeny, tiny flux capacitor and send me back in time. Or maybe I should move forward? I’ll have to think about that a bit.
And there is no question that I must have the world’s cutest evil monster adorning my tree. Yes, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters will also be coming out next year. I will put him on the very front of my tree and gaze at his evil cuteness while I roast real marshmallows in my fireplace.
We have a train which runs on a circular track, which my parents got after my first so was born. I like this one very much – when it’s UNplugged. It’s pretty loud.
I used to get Hallmark ornaments every year as a child, though none were nearly as cool as these movie-themed ones. My favorite was and maybe still is this little bird sitting on/eating a cracker. It’s adorable. I used to specifically hang it in a place near the spot where I knew I’d be sitting on Christmas Eve, just so I could look at it some more.
I can’t pinpoint one specific ornament but I do have a favorite memory:
One Xmas, while DH and I were still apartment-dwelling and kid-free, we attempted to hook up all of our SW and ST ornaments onto a spare white light string we had. We hung it from the top of the area that divided our dining room and living room, plugged in at least a dozen ornaments, and finally plugged the light strand into the wall. It blazed forth…for about two seconds, then flickered between bright and dull a few times, ultimately settling on the latter.
We then tested the audio feature of the Borg Cube to see if that had been affected on those ornaments that had that component as well. Result: it’s very hard to take the Collective seriously when their threat of assimilation is like playing a 45 record on 33 1/3 RPM.
Well, we unplugged it but decided to leave it up, thinking it would be amusing to show our friends when they came over for gaming night. Sure enough, our spectacular ornament fail was a hit with them. As we hunkered in for a long night of M:tG — (sniff sniff) honey, what’s that electric-burning-plastic-melting smell?
Thankfully, none of the ornaments were damaged.
I have actually only ever bought one, mostly because I never remember that Hallmark even exists (not really near my usual beaten path’s) but one year I stumbled on it and found a Space Ghost ornament! I was squeeing and had to take it home with me. I also found a generic female dancer ornament that looked identical to my mom when she was a professional dancer and got that for her. And even though her Christmas tree is very traditional, lights, glass globes and white doves; the dancer ornament always makes a come back each year.
I think I’m going to have to get into this now though for my new baby and my new step-son! The possibilities are staggering. We’ll just have to make sure the Lego ones get packed in with the ornaments and not the toy box 🙂
My mother bought my sister and I a dated Hallmark ornament every year for Christmas. My first Christmas after I married and moved out instead of sad little bare tree I had a tree covered in eighteen years of memories plus two new ones. I’ve continued the tradition with my girls, now 9 1/2 and turning two next week.
My favorite of all the ornaments is hard to say, I love my Star Wars ornaments, the Mary’s Angels are adorable, but I think my favorites are the heart locket ornament and the red door “Our First House” ornament.
My favorite all time? The leg lamp from A Christmas Story. It looks awesome on our tree. 🙂
My favorite would have to be my Snow White Evil Queen. She’s my fav villain. We get our three girls a special ornament every christmas. It’s such a special thing to us.
I would have to say the leg lamp from A Christmas Story as well. I do remember having some of the Star Wars ornaments on our tree (Chewbacca with a dismembered 3PO). I wish we still had them!
We try to do a storybook character each year for one of our children (whose nickname is Monkey Mu) so my favorite is Curious George painting a candycane.
First of all, if Star Wars is not your speed you shouldn’t be reading this blog. 😉 How could any self respecting Geek Mom not love Star Wars?!
My favorite Hallmark ornament is not geek related. It’s the Mom and Dad To Be ornaments from when we were expecting our now 20 year old son. 😀
There have been some seriously awesome Hallmark ornaments! But I have to say the Star Trek TOS shuttlecraft was my favorite, but I think that is cause of the nostalgia of having it on our tree as a kid. You pushed a button and Spock said “shuttlecraft to enterprise, Spock here, Happy Holidays.” So awesome!
My favorite Hallmark ornament is a skiing Daffy Duck, my all-time favorite Looney Tunes character. It captures the quintessential look of Daffy. Skis spread apart, out of control with an “oh well” face. Like he knows he’s going to eat it and there’s nothing he can do about it. Priceless.
I am a Superman fan from way back, so I think I’m obligated to say the Superman phone booth ornament.
I don’t currently have a favorite but that stay puft marshmallow man could easily fill that void.
I have a huge Christmas ornament … Problem. My weakness is any one with Snoopy!
I am just discovering the range of Hallmark ornaments, so I don’t have any geeky favorites yet. However, I do love the Snowball and Tuxedo series, especially the one with Snowball lifting Tuxedo to place the star at the top of the tree.
Today in Geek history… I WIN!!!!
pick me!!!
I got so excited at the thoguht of winning I forgot to say… My Fav Halmark Ornament is my death star because Ender loves to push the button and hear Darth Vader breathing… he giggles… I laugh… it all works out!
I used to get several Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments each year from my grandmother for Christmas. I think that my favorite of them was the Klingon Bird of Prey, just because it was really cool to me as a kid. I always preferred the ships to the other ones.
my all-time faves have to be the several Baby’s First Christmas ornaments we got after my son came to us through adoption-a wonderful end to a long hard road to family! now he loves SW and gets an ornament of his own each year
Great post! For the first time ever I got the exclusive SDCC ornaments and I’m counting the days t I can use them:) my favorite hallmark ornament is my grinch one. Ithanks for the contest!
I have a first Christmas in our home one that my mom gave me the first year I was married and in our new house…it means a lot to me!