Ornament Review: Patriotic Pals - Happiness is Peanuts All Year Long #12 - 2014 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Decent sculpt, great colors for the theme and time of year

Cons: Simple; would have been nice to see a different character

The Bottom Line:

Snoopy waves the flag

Ending series in summer

Patriotic time

Snoopy and Woodstock Close Out the Year with a Patriotic Moment

A year sure goes by quickly.  Hard to believe we are already at the end of the Happiness is Peanuts All Year Round series.  Since the series started mid-year, we close things off with Patriotic Pals for the early summer time of year.

This ornament is fairly simple.  It's Snoopy holding a flag.  Okay, there is a bit more to it than that, but not much.  He also has a red top hat with white stripes on his head.  Woodstock is standing on the brim of Snoopy's hat (this is called Patriotic Pals, after all), and is wearing a similar top hat of his own.

Now I don't have an issue with the simple ornament.  Yes, it would be nice if it had a little more, but I'm not quite sure what it would have in addition to what is already there.  It would be nice, however, if they included a different characters here.  This is Snoopy's fourth time and Woodstock's third.  There are so many characters we never got to see who could hold the flag and wear some red, white, and blue, you know?

If you bought the optional stand, the background for this ornament is actually quite fun.  It's a dark blue with fireworks of all different colors going off in the background.  I like it and find it really does add something to the ornament.

Unlike many ornaments in the series that have larger bases, this base is just Snoopy's two feet.  He's not quite as steady as some of the others as a result, but he will stand upright.

And that's a good thing because you don't want to hang him.  Once again, the loop is turned wrong to hang him from the optional stand.  As a result, I'll be standing him upright.  Then again, with where the brass loop is, it would be hard to hang him from the stand period - it's located in the front of Snoopy's top hat.  If you do hang him, you'll find that he tips back slightly, but it's not enough to be an issue.

A bit of trivia - this isn't the first time that Hallmark has used this name for a Snoopy and Woodstock ornament.  They also did it back in 2008 for the 11th entry in the Spotlight on Snoopy series.  That time, Snoopy was dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and Woodstock was Uncle Sam.  I generally use that one as a Christmas ornament, but I might dig it out to display these two side by side some year.

As I said at the beginning, this is the final ornament in the monthly series.  You can find a 12 in a Christmas tree on the bottom of Snoopy's feet, but you have to look closely.

I really do wish they had given someone else a chance to shine as they closed out Happiness is Peanuts All Year Long.  Even so, the simple Patriotic Pals is a fun ornament for the patriotic time of year.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Happiness is Peanuts All Year Long series.

Original Price: $12.95