As Christmas approaches, Christina points out to me that I
am almost impossible to buy gifts for.
I agree. During the year I
will drop a “not so subtle” hint to help her out. One item she knows she can always get me is a Christmas
ornament, specifically Hallmark.
Since 1973, Hallmark has introduced more than 3,000 different Keepsakes
Ornaments and more than 100 ornament series, groups of ornaments that share a
specific theme.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, after college Christmas
was not as celebrated an event at home as it used to be. But when I was younger we would spend
the day at my Grandmother’s house on my Step Dad’s side. We would barely be digesting the
Christmas Eve fish feast from the night before as we were soon over the river
and through the woods right back to Grandmother’s house Christmas Day. This time pasta was on the menu…along
with pasta. Did I mention we had
pasta? As time took its toll,
these grand gatherings ceased.
Christmas would now consist of the immediate family staying at
home. This time dysfunction was on
the menu…along with dysfunction. Did I mention we had dysfunction? It really stemmed from one source. The holiday turned into a bad sequel to
Groundhog’s Day. Each year was the
same thing, the same fights.
Looking back I couldn’t distinguish one year from the next...except for
one thing.
In 1992 my Mom started getting me a Hallmark ornament from
the Star Trek Keepsake series.
Each Christmas season she would go on a quest to find that year’s
offering. You have to remember, Al
Gore had not invented the Internet yet!
She chose the series with the ships…well, for obvious reasons. But also she recalled how I liked the lighted
ornaments that you can plug right into a strand of lights. At the time, it was the only Hallmark
ornament to feature these “Magic Lights”.
From 1992 until her last Christmas in 2001 she gave me this as my
gift. These ornaments became
the only way to differentiate each Christmas we had. Now, I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. And while I really loved these
ornaments, and Mom loved giving them to me…you may recall I didn’t set up a
tree during that time period. The
ornaments sat in their boxes, like a collector might keep them. It wasn’t until 2005 that they finally
came out and shined. Every year
they would get prominent spots on the tree. A few weeks ago, as I was taking out all the Christmas
items, I had to move boxes of old family photos. I opened one of them, and to my surprise I found five more
Star Trek ornaments! I knew I got
one each year…I guess I just never realized there were more stored somewhere
else. They had sat packed away
with the photos since my Mother’s passing in 2002. Seems I got one last gift from her this year.
In the mid 90’s Hallmark ornaments became pretty mainstream. During that time, while Christmas
shopping with whomever I was dating, we would always seem to wind up in a
Hallmark store. It was a popular
destination. While I knew I would
be getting the yearly Star Trek one, I decided to purchase the new line of
sports themed keepsakes…and of course, in Pittsburgh Steeler flavor. From then on, each year, I would get a
Steeler ornament from Hallmark.
Eventually I would get the one that the Steeler team puts out every year
too. Now, while I was still
Scrooge Walsh, and not even having my own tree…it would seem buying ornaments
was kind of useless. Well, you
might have noticed I like to collect things. And these were Steeler “things”. When I first started dating Christina I went with her to
pick out a tree. It was a
beautiful six-foot fir, ready to be filled with ornaments. As we placed the evergreen in her
apartment I mentioned that I have all these Steeler ornaments I could place
upon it. She responded “Oh, No…I
don’t want any Steeler ornaments on MY tree.” Hmmmm…new girl, same “MY” tree tude. Yeah, Christmas was a Humbug. The following season we were still
together. This time, as we were
setting up the tree, she asked if I would like to put my Steeler ornaments on
it. I said, “No, I don’t want to
put Steeler ornaments on YOUR tree.”
Seeing it was stubborn sarcasm emanating from her comments the previous
year, she rolled her eyes and didn’t ask again. And she married me anyway… and now gets me the yearly
Steeler Hallmark ornament.
Before we bought the house, Christina and I would travel
more frequently. As a memento, we
would often pick up a Christmas ornament that dated our travels. During one of these trips we ventured
into a music club in St. Louis named Blueberry Hill. Inside they had, for whatever reason, an extensive
collection of Simpson items. Among
them were six awesome Christmas ornaments that depicted scenes from the show. As a collector I had to have them. I inquired if they had them for sale,
or where I might purchase them. No
one seemed to know. When I got
home I perused the Internet to find these artifacts. Success! The
site showed all six, and you would get 3 at a time in a shipment. Perfect timing, we had two months until
Christmas. The first week of
November the initial set arrived.
Upon closer inspection these ornaments where even better than I
imagined. Next month I got the
other three to complete the set.
Awesome! Christmas came and
went. January rolled around…and
what was this? Another package of
three Simpsons ornaments arrived.
I thought it had to be a mistake. But when I opened them they were a different series. Hmmm, didn’t know they made 9 of these. As the months progressed, 9 became 12,
12 became 15. I would receive a
monthly package for the next year and a half. I now have SIXTY of them! I am glad the ornament series did not run as long as the
actual TV series.
We would continue to augment our ornament collection. And Hallmark would be prominently featured. From Rudolph to Peanuts. From Trains to Planes. The ornaments kept coming.
So now you have the answer.
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