Celebrating 50 Years of Hallmark Keepsake OrnamentsSentimental Journey

Since 1973, Hallmark Keepsake ornaments have provided a visual representation of the things we treasure in life, immortalized each Christmas season on a tree or tabletop. It all started with the release of six decorated glass ball ornaments and 12 yarn ornaments. 

“We actually began testing the marketplace the year prior,” Hallmark historian and archivist Samantha Bradbeer Stephens explains. “In December of 1972, we placed four glass ball ornaments with decorative bands featuring original illustrations from Hallmark artists into select stores. They flew off the shelves. So, by 1973, we officially were in the ornament business and launched a line featuring 12 yarn ornaments and six glass ball ornaments, including those four original designs that we tested in the marketplace.” 

Today, Hallmark releases approximately 450 new ornaments each year honoring life’s notable occasions like graduation, a new home, or the birth of a child, plus characterizations of hobbies and interests, sprinkling in licensed merchandise from your favorite images of pop culture. In 1977, Hallmark released its first ornaments featuring Peanuts and Disney characters.

Before the company made Christmas ornaments commercially available to the masses, the everyday consumer relied on ones produced either locally or by hand or more costly ones shipped from overseas.

 “Until then, Americans in particular had very few options to decorate their Christmas trees,” Bradbeer Stephens notes. “The popular designs, of course, at the time continue to be imported German blown glass ornaments, which were pretty expensive, or simple glass and then later plastic ball ornaments, that tended to be solid colors.” 

Thus, a brand, now 10,000 ornaments strong, was born. The Kansas City-based Hallmark Keepsake archives are climate-controlled and accessible only to employees, writers, and artists.

“They can always come to the archives to see our collection whether it’s the ornaments themselves, prototypes, documentation — including Dream Books or other publications — and they can look through those materials to get inspiration,” Bradbeer Stephens adds.

A team comes together to offer creative insight, engineering, and concept development to make sure the needs of consumers are met.

“We work really far in advance — multiple years in terms of the development of new products,” says Theresa McGeehan, Senior Merchant Director of Product Development. “We look for skilled artists who have very strong foundational drawing and illustration skills, but also strong digital illustration and digital sculpting capabilities. An outstanding storytelling ability is also something that is important to the business.”

Bradbeer Stephens said since the beginning, Hallmark had been committed to inclusion, offering ornaments that depict different races, religions, interests, abilities, and sexual orientations.

“We really lean into marketplace trends and culture, what’s going on, to make sure we’re developing a range of ornaments,” McGeehan adds. “It’s definitely an intersection of art and science.”

To show consumers what would be available to purchase each year, Hallmark began publishing catalogs in 1979.

“The reason why we started to provide that product catalog in the marketplace, at our stores, and to retail owners directly to share with their shoppers, was for ornament collectors. It was a way for us to share not only photos of the ornaments, but also ideas on how to decorate with those ornaments,” Bradbeer Stephens notes.

In 1990, the promotional material evolved into the Dream Book.

“It was directly related to those consumers and fans of Keepsake ornaments because they often told our artists that they were dreaming of what was going to be coming out in the line for the following year,” she says.

Products released as limited editions are the first ones in a series and are only available at conventions or to Keepsake Ornament Club members, and repainted pieces tend to be in the highest demand.

 Christmas 1978 saw the launch of a colorful carousel ornament featuring a truck, rocking horse, and red sleigh. Released in 1980 was the fan favorite Cool Yule, part of the longest-running series in Keepsake history — The Frosty Friends — inspired by the 1970s greeting cards. The Rocking Horse series started in 1981 and lasted for 16 years. In 1982, the Tin Locomotive came on the scene — the first in a series that represented eight models of trains of the early days of rail transportation. 

The year 1983 introduced the Cinnamon Bear series which ended in 1990. Coming out in 1984 was the first in the Nostalgic Houses and Shops series, still in existence. In 1986, Hallmark released a hand-painted porcelain bluebird that sported a clothespin base for clipping on the tree. The Mischievous Kittens series turns 25 this year. 

As the company explains it, an ornament “repaint” is a new colorway or color combination that replaces some or all of the original colors with brand-new ones. Repaints draw mixed feelings from collectors.

Ornaments featuring Star Wars imagery and Disney princesses from the 1990s are especially popular with fans.

The National Keepsake Ornament Club was established in 1987 and has more than 50,000 members across the United States and Canada.

Modern Keepsake ornaments that may become collectibles 50 years from now include a line of miniatures, the Young Santa series, gnomes, Hocus Pocus, anniversary editions, and more.

“There’s always a story behind it, which is part of that keepsake magic,” McGeehan says of the product lines.

She said the diverse tastes of ornament collectors keep the brand thriving.

“We’ve found, for the most part, there’s usually always been a consumer looking for something,” she says. “By having a wide variety of different series content, this allows us to be part of people’s traditions and their memories, in whatever way that looks like for them. As long as they keep buying them, we’ll keep making them.”

On its social media platforms, Hallmark has featured “A Day in the Life of a Keepsake Artist” to give the public behind-the-scenes access to how a concept ends up on your Christmas tree.

The first half of the Keepsake Ornament Premiere took place in July, featuring more than 250 new releases. In October, more than 150 new ornaments were released.

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