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December 21, 2007

Collectible ornaments

I love collecting Hallmark ornaments. This ornament is obviously for this year's Cool Decade. I must have well over 120 Hallmark ornaments!

A friend of the family gave my Mom the first one back in 1974. It was a Betsey Clark ornament. I referred to Betsey Clark's artwork of little waifs as the "onionhead kids". I was mesmerized by this ornament. I never saw anything like it. I think because it was new and different, it caught my attention. Back in the 70's there were lots of tacky ornaments. I remember my mother buying the plastic balls that were covered with some kind of "string" that stuck to my fingers. Each year when we'd hang them on the tree, they got worse because the material would pull away from the form. I still have them and can't part with them. Another year, my Godmother gave our family a set of six gingerbread soldiers to hang from the tree. I was so little, I thought they were real cookies! I took a bite into one of them to quickly find out they were styrofoam. I still have that ornament, too. When I hang it up, I have to laugh. You can still see my teeth marks.

I actually have three sets of ornaments; one set is from my parents and when we kids were growing up. Along the way, I added several more ornaments from my travels around the world. The second set is all Hallmark ornaments that I started collecting when I was in my late teens. Actually, that also makes up set three. The third set of ornaments are the Hallmark ornaments that are too heavy to be hung on a real tree, so I put those on the fake tree. Yes. I put up two trees! I put up a fake tree right after Thanksgiving because I can't wait to get a real tree.

Upload a photo of your favorite ornament and share its history.

Posted by Donna McGarry  at 9:57 AM to Christmas 2007 | Permalink

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