Ornament Review: Sweet Shop - Noelville #1 - 2006 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Cute gingerbread house ornament with great light effects

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: 

Cute little sweet shop

With amazing light effect

Noelville starts well

Noelville Got Off to a Sweet Shop Start

I had largely ignored Hallmark ornaments for years, only getting one or two.  In late 2009, I threw caution to the wind and started seriously collecting them.  (And in 2010, I needed to add a second tree to hope to have space for a majority of my ornaments.)  The first series I started to collect was Noelville, and this Sweet Shop is the first in that series.

The Noelville series recreates a gingerbread town.  But if that's not enough, each ornament in the series has a slot in the back of the ornament you can use to slip a Christmas tree light in to light up the ornament.

This Sweet Shop has brown, gingerbread walls.  The roof is made out of hard candies.  There are peppermint canes on the corners of the building, candy hearts on the shutters, and gumdrop bushes.  A gingerbread man stands in the front window smiling at us.  And there is a wrapped candy hanging from a candy cane out front with 2006 written on it, the year this ornament first came out.  And there is icing snow on the top of the roof and around the building with enough glitter to catch the light but not enough to stick to your hands every time you pick it up.

Now if you think the windows are all that glow when you plug a light into it, you'd be wrong.  Yes, you can see light coming through the windows, but the roof is clear enough that it really lights up, too.  Even the bushes get into the act a little, although the room has to be really dark before you notice them.

Honestly, the ornament looks great enough without the lighting element.  The gingerbread house looks delicious and the decorations show lots of creativity.  However, I loved stained glass, so the instant I saw this ornament lit up, I fell completely in love with it.  When you have all the lights off but the Christmas tree, you can't help but spot it because it lights up so much.  The windows have an orangish glow to them, which really makes them warm and inviting.

Because this is a house ornament, it has a nice base, so if you decide to display this series as a town, it will sit nice and flat.  On the bottom of the base is the copyright and series information.

But if you decide to hang this ornament, you'll find a brass hook in the middle of the roof you can slip an ornament hanger through.  The ornament hangs perfectly straight.  I have found that how it actually hangs on the tree changes based on where the light I want to attach it to is located.  As a result, I always try to place it near a light so that it can hang flat.

While I got the first four in the Noelville series at the same time, Sweet Shop is still one of my favorites because of it's great lighting effect and overall look.  If you like candy type ornaments or ornaments that light up, this one is definitely for you.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Noelville series.

Original Price: $16.50