Hallmark

We received four Hallmark ornaments to review. We were not compensated monetarily for this post, and we truly love Hallmark Keepsake ornaments and their Charlie Brown sets.  All opinions are honest and our own.

If you saw my Hallmark post from last year, you know we are huge Hallmark Keepsake ornament fans. Getting new Hallmark ornaments each year is a favorite tradition of our family and is one we always plan to incorporate into our Christmas festivities.

Beyond the ornaments, Hallmark offers all sorts of other really fun Christmas decor. For instance, back in 2011 we got this set of Charlie Brown characters; they each play an instrument, and they interact with each other remotely to all play songs together. They’re so fun, and our kids adore them.

This year Hallmark has released the Charlie Brown Peanuts Gang Light Up Show.  There are five, although not all of the characters have been released yet (we’re already planning to go this weekend and get Linus & Snoopy!); this set not only plays music, but it has an interactive light show timed with the music and coordinated between each piece. It’s colorful, fun, and incredibly impressive. We’re so glad to have it as a part of our Christmas decor.

Of course, I’ve also got to share which ornaments we picked this year! The kids loved looking through them all, and each one found an ornament that’s truly a perfect fit for their personality.

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Note: We received four Hallmark ornaments to review. We were not compensated monetarily for this post, and as you can see from our collection, we truly love Hallmark Keepsake ornaments! All opinions are honest and our own.

Brian and I got married in October of 2003, and one of our very first traditions we established as a married couple was picking out a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament. We picked out a little birdhouse with art supplies – so cute, right?

Over the years we’ve always picked out an ornament as a couple. We always talk and pick one we like best, and we have quite a varied collection now. One of my favorite things each holiday season is pulling down our tub of ornaments and looking  through our collection, talking about memories of picking various ornaments.

Of course, once we started having children we included them in the tradition, too. Our plan is for each of our children to take their ornament collection when they’re grown and have them to place on their own family’s tree. The kids have a blast picking out ornaments that represent their interests each year, and I’m still very sentimental when I see their first year ornaments! Here’s J with his collection:

I love seeing ornaments like the Thomas the Train one from several years ago. Thomas occupied a big part of our entertainment for several years, and even though the kids have moved past that now the ornament will always be a reminder of that phase of J’s childhood.

Here’s C’s collection:

It’s fun to see how different their interests are, and we love seeing that shine through in their ornament selection. C loves baking so several of his ornaments (including – spoiler alert – this year’s!) focus on that, as you can see in the cookie cutter ornament and the candy/cookie train.

E, of course, is just two so her collection is pretty small:

I love seeing their faces as they look through their ornaments and talk about why they like certain ones best. It’s a tradition we plan to keep, and as our collections grow it will be more and more fun talking about memories with each ornament. Speaking of memories, be sure and check out Hallmark’s #KeepsakeIt sweepstakes! Just post the moments you want to keepsake on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #KeepsakeIt, or upload them here. You could win weekly prizes, or a grand prize of Keepsake Ornaments and $3,000 toward a family vacation to make more memories!

Of course, with Christmas right around the corner it’s about time for us to be thinking about ornaments again, so we went ahead and made our selections – I love what we picked!

Brian and I picked the Charlie Brown & kite ornament. We love the charm of Charlie brown looking like he’s stuck in the Christmas tree, and we both have fond memories of Charlie Brown from childhood. For E we picked a Mickey and Minnie Mouse ornament, because that little girl loves Mickey Mouse right now. I’m sure you can guess which ornament is C’s – the cake pops! He has decided we need to make real cake pops to go along with his ornament. And J picked out a Phineas & Ferb ornament,  which is great because our whole family actually likes to sit down and watch that together. One tip – each year I write initials on the back of the ornament boxes so it’s easy to sort them out. The boys each have a fire truck ornament, for example, so this helps make decorating nice and easy.

And don’t the ornaments look great on the tree?

We actually even got an ornament for the dogs, because C saw one in the store that he said was just perfect. We’ll print out their photo to customize it – our dogs are an important part of our family, so it’s only fitting that they get an ornament too!

I love the Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments because there are some for virtually every interest, and they’re SO well-made. Brian still has many of his from childhood, including these Star Trek ornaments from almost 20 years ago:

Be sure and go purchase your ornaments soon – believe me, people get started buying them early. Some years we’ve waited too late and have had a hard time tracking down the ones we really want! You can find a local Hallmark store or can shop online, too. Happy decorating!!