Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Cute design
Cons: Not enough lights up
The Bottom Line:
One more shop visit
Noelville winds to an end
Wish it lit up more
Time is up for the Village of Noelville
Every year, die hard collectors wait in dread to find out
which series Hallmark is ending in a given year. This year, two of
my series are ending. (And I’ve started three more. I was
trying to cut back, honest!) One wasn’t a surprise based on poor
sales, but I was a little surprised to see that Noelville was
ending. However, the final entry, the Clock Shop, shows why it might
be time for this series to end.
As always, this is a highly decorated and tasty looking
gingerbread house. There is glittered filled white frosting on parts
of the roof and ground to represent snow with green holly leaves with red
berries for trim on the front. We have hard candy bushes on two
corners of the building as well. What makes it a clock
shop? Well, there is a cookie clock on the front over the door with
a red bird popping out of a window above that. It looks a little
like a cuckoo cuckoo clock, in fact, an element I certainly love.
There were two reasons I started collecting this
village. The first was creative decorating with the frosting and candy. This
ornament has that with the clock element. The second is the light
element. And this is where this ornament disappoints.
As is usual, the windows and various other elements of this
ornament are colored see through plastic. If you put the light from
an ordinary string of Christmas tree lights in the hole in the back, it shines
through these parts. However, the windows in the front, are small
and there are none of the sides. Yes, you do get some glow through
the roof and bushes in three corners (the gingerbread shop owner is in the
fourth corner), but it’s not enough to make up for the solid
sides. Give us bigger windows!
This isn’t the first ornament in the series to not light up
enough for my tastes. The first four were great with plenty of
light, but several in the middle were this dark. The last few were
getting lighter again, but with this ornament being darker, it actually makes
me feel better about the series ending.
Since this is a building, the ornament has a nice, flat
base. Someday, I intend to set all of the series out in a
display. There is a 10 in a Christmas tree on the bottom of the
ornament since this is the tenth in the series.
There is a loop in the middle of the Clock Shop’s roof, so
you can hang it on your tree. It does hang straight, although that could
always be pulled off based on how the light string pulls on the ornament.
If more of the ornaments in the series had been like the
first few, I would be sorry to see Noelville end. But the Clock Shop, while not bad, shows why I am okay saying goodbye to this village.
Original Price: $19.95
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.