Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Cute scene
Cons: Background too dark to show all details
The Bottom Line:
The witch flies at night
Obscuring some small details
Overall cute scene
Bewitching Start to Hallmark’s First Halloween Series
When I started collection Hallmark ornaments five years ago,
I specifically avoided looking at their Halloween ornaments. I don’t
decorate for Halloween, and I wasn’t going to start. I’ve slowly been
caving the last couple of years as they’ve released Halloween related
compliments to series I love. But I fell in a big way just this
month when I broke down and started the Happy Halloween! series. I
swear, series are my weakness as a collector. The series started in
2013 with a cute witch as the focus.
This is a very cute and creative idea, one that many artists
seem to be enjoying working with at Hallmark right now. Each
ornament in the series features a scene inside a carved pumpkin. In
this case, the bright orange pumpkin’s face is a fairly traditional, while the pumpkin itself
has an elongated oval shape. There are two triangle eyes and a
triangle nose up high, and a very wide open mouth that is actually the majority
of the front of the pumpkin. Inside, you’ll find a scenes with a
witch. Now, this isn’t a stereotypical ugly witch and a young, cute
witch. She’s flying across the night sky on her broom and wearing a
witch’s hat and cloak. Behind her, you can see the moon and some
glitter stars almost shrouded by fog (also containing glitter). And
if you look really closely, you’ll find a couple of bats in the background.
Speaking of bats, the mouth, while looking like a smile,
also looks a little like a bat. Okay, so maybe you have to squint to
see it as a bat, but a swear it has just a hint of that shape to me, and I
think it’s a fun little feature.
Unfortunately, with the background being black, some of the
details don’t really show up that well in the diorama. That’s
especially true of the bats. The witch herself, since she’s in front
of the background, looks great, however.
The pumpkin comes to a narrow flat bottom. You
could set this out to display, but it leans forward and will tip over fairly
easily if you bump whatever it is sitting on.
One reason I haven’t bought too many Halloween ornaments is
because I wasn’t sure how to display them by hanging them. Hallmark
certainly plans for you to display them this way since they provide a loop on
the top of the pumpkin’s stem. Slip a hook through it and you’ll
find that it hangs level. It definitely
looks better hanging than it does standing on its own. As to how to display it, I think I’m going to
use one of the stands I’ve bought from Hallmark and use it for Halloween
ornaments.
You will find a 1 in a Christmas tree on the bottom of the
ornament, representing the fact that this is the first in a series. I
do wish they’d come up with something different for the series marker on
these. I was thinking a pumpkin, but that might be hard since the
Christmas tree symbol used in really just a triangle. But that’s a
different matter entirely.
The dark background makes the first Happy Halloween! ornament less than perfect, but it’s still a fun start. I’m glad I
changed my mind and started this series.
There's more spooky fun with the rest of Hallmark's Happy Halloween! series.
Original Price: $14.95
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