Ornament Review: Ho! Ho! Ho! Tasty Snow! - 2011 Hallmark Peanuts Magic Cord Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great light effects and dialog

Cons: Pricey (but worth it)

The Bottom Line: 

Awesome light effects

Coupled with fun sound make this

Ornament perfect

Tasty Snowflakes and Magical Effects Star in This Peanuts Ornament

Last year, Hallmark introduced a new line of light and motion ornaments they called Wonder and Light.  None of them interested me and they required a special power cord they called a magic cord.  This year, they've expanded the line of ornaments that connect to that magic cord, and I broke down and bought two of them already.  For Peanuts fans, there's Ho! Ho! Ho! Tasty Snow!  Believe me, it will be hard to resist.

This is a rather big ornament.  It sits on an oval base that's about three and a half inches long.  It's almost four inches high.  Out in front, we've got Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy.  Charlie Brown and Linus are sticking out there tongues to catch snowflakes while Lucy is just smiling.  The characters couldn't look better if Charles Schultz himself had drawn them.

The backdrop behind them is where the light comes into play.  There's a big circle that is filled with a couple layers of twinkling LED lights.  It really looks like it is snowing.  The effect is amazing.

Based on the preview on Hallmark's website, I was going to give this ornament a pass.  See, in addition to the snow fall, there's also some dialog and music.  When you hit the button in the snow at Lucy's feet, you hear a few lines of dialog from A Charlie Brown Christmas.  It's the lines of Charlie Brown and Linus enjoying catching the snow on their tongues while Lucy comments that she always waits until January to eat snowflakes.  The music playing is from the special as well.  I love that special, so it irritated me to no end that the voices in the preview clip didn't sound at all like the characters do in that special.  It was disappointing because I loved how it looked and the snow effect is very impressive.  But I know I'd never grow to like the voices.

Then I went into the store for Ornament Premier this year.  As I was playing with the ornaments, I hit the button on this one.  I don't know if the sound on the preview video was faulty or if they fixed it before the ornaments were released, but it sounds almost identical to the special now.  The timing seems off in a couple spots.  Since Hallmark normally doesn't use actual clips from movies and specials in their ornaments, my guess is this is a rerecording, but it's so close to the original I wouldn't swear to it.  Heck, the timing issues could be editing moments to make the clip slightly shorter.  Either way, this fan was so pleased with the result I didn't hesitate to buy it.

One of the cool things about the magic cord ornaments is that they interact.  As long as the cord is plugged in, they are turned on.  But when you press the button on one of them, it leads the others in a light show.  For example, with this one, the lights on the other ones flash on and off with a little fading in and out while the dialog plays.  It's about a 30 second clip.  Since the only lights on this one are the snow falling, when another ornament is in charge of the light show, the lights just fade in and out.

The ornament sits on a big base that's at least an inch high, probably to hold the computer for all the various things this ornament does.  As a result, it sits nice and flat, so you could place these ornaments on a mantel and string the cord up there and enjoy it.

But if you are going to go with the more traditional tree route, you'll find the ring to hang it from on the top of the ornament.  It's perfectly balanced, so it hangs nice and level.  The cord to connect it to the Magic cord dangles out the back of the base.  It's long enough that you have some flexibility how far away from the cord you hang it.

At $24.95, this is not a cheap ornament.  And the Magic Cord is sold separately.  ($5.95 for a cord that can connect 7 ornaments.)  But in my mind it is worth it.

I'm glad I didn't write this ornament off based on the web preview.  Ho! Ho! Ho! Tasty Snow! is a very welcome addition to my tree.

Original Price: $24.95