Ornament Review: North Pole Tree Trimmers #3 - Glitter Elf - 2015 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Cute elf doing a fun job

Cons: Shaking glitter into the middle of the ornament?

The Bottom Line:

A cute ornament

But with confusing image

I do still like it

Cue the Sparkle

Sometimes, Hallmark ornaments don’t photograph well, so I learn early on not to judge an ornament until I had seen it in person.  That’s the case with the third North PoleTree Trimmers ornament.  Yes, this 2015 release is fun, yet the pictures didn’t quite do it justice.

This series focuses on the elves who help Santa create decorations, and this elf has a fun job.  He gets to shake the glitter on and in the ornaments.  And I do mean shake.  He’s actually holding a salt shaker filled with glitter and he’s shaking it until the middle of a purple ornament.  He’s very particular about his job, as you can tell by the look of concentration on his face as he works.

Yes, you did read that right.  He is putting the glitter into the middle of the ornament.  Honestly, this is one reason why the ornament looks so odd in pictures.  It doesn’t make complete sense even in person.  Why would you put glitter into the middle of an ornament when you want the sparkle to shine on the outside of the ornament?  Makes little sense to me.

While that’s an issue, it is a minor issue to me.  The elf is cute as always, and I love the idea behind the ornament overall.  Maybe there’s something I’m missing, like a diorama that is going to go into the ornament by the elf in the next step of production?  Yeah, we’ll go with that as what is happening here.  This isn’t the final elf to work on the ornament.  Or maybe, since I’m not super familiar with the old fashioned ornaments, this is just a particular kind and it’s supposed to look like this.  It certainly doesn’t look bad this way, and the glitter in the opening is lots of fun.

Whatever the story is, the elf and the ornament do provide a nice, steady base, so you can set this ornament out to enjoy is a display if you so wish.

The series marker, a 3 in a Christmas tree, was in the third place I looked for it, which seems appropriate somehow.  I’ll let you have fun finding it, but know it is there.

The loop for hanging the ornament is on the glitter shaker.  Slip a hook through it and you’ll find that it tips slightly toward the ornament.  But that’s okay because it still looks good that way.

The ornament does look very cute in person, so I was happy to add 2015’s North Pole Tree Trimmer to my collection.  I’m not completely sure the idea behind the ornament translates, but I do still like it.

Looking for more elves?  Here's the North Pole Tree Trimmers series.

Original Price: $12.95