Ornament Review: Santa - Yuletide Treasures #1 - 2006 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Real pull string action, look

Cons: Could be too dated for some

The Bottom Line: 

Cool Christmas combo

Pull strings toys that hang on tree

Santa's perfect start

Old Fashioned Toys Remembered as Santa Starts the Yuletide Treasures Series

The creativity of the Hallmark artists continues to amaze me.  I never would have thought of creating a series of ornaments based around old pull string toys.  But that's exactly what they did with the Yuletide Treasures series, which kicked off with Santa in 2006.

The series has a decidedly old fashioned look to it.  Yes, Santa is wearing red and white, but the gold decorations on his coat and hat and the fact that the colors are muted instead of vibrant gives it a nostalgic look.  In one hand, Santa is holding a gold lantern.  The other hand has a blue bag filled with toys.  In fact, you can see a bear jack-in-the-box popping out of the top of the bag.

Since this is designed to be a pull string toy as well as an ornament, the string hanging down between his legs actually works.  The little weight on the end of the string is a present.  When you pull it, Santa's legs kick out and the hand holding the lantern goes up and down.  While the jack-in-the-box is on a spring, he only moves when you brush him.  It would be cool if he moved when you pulled on the string, although considering he is located so far from the other moving parts, I think that would be a little tricky.

While Santa does have two feet, he can't stand on them at all.  Frankly, I don't think you'd want to try since the ornament is surprisingly heavy.  The ring for hanging the ornament is in Santa's hat, and when you hang it, you'll find that he hangs straight.

They didn't try very hard to hide the series and copyright markings on this ornament.  They are located on the bottoms of Santa's feet, white on the black shoes.  Fortunately, the writing is so small it's hardly noticeable when he's hanging on the tree.

While the fact that the ornament actually moves when you pull the string is fun, you really don't want to try pulling the string while the ornament is on the tree.  Because of Santa's weight, I think you'd pull him off the branch before you got his legs and arm to move.  But if you grab the ornament, even by Santa's hat, you should be just fine.

I'll admit when I first looked at this series, I wasn't that impressed, but the more I looked at it, the more the nostalgia appealed to me.  Santa really did start this series out with a bang.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Yuletide Treasures series.

Original Price: $16.50