Ornament Review: Swingin' Sax - 2017 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun Sax for the jazz band.

Cons: Doesn’t play well on its own, biggest tip of the three.

The Bottom Line:

Jazzing up the halls

Not quite as good on its own

But great with the band

The Leader of the Band is on Sax

The ornaments in the Merry Music Makers series from Hallmark all theoretically could stand on their own.  However, when you plug them in to their power cord, you’ll notice they all play a few seconds of “Deck the Halls.”  I think that makes Swingin’ Sax the leader since that is the song this ornament plays.

Like the others, this ornament features a penguin sculpted by Kristina Gaughran playing an instrument.  And, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, this penguin is playing a saxophone.  The saxophone itself glows when the ornament is plugged in.

Plugged into what?  Hallmark’s new Power Cord, which not only allows the ornaments to play a song, but it also allows the other ornaments of the set to play along when any of the ornaments are playing.  You can buy just one, but you get a better song when you have all of them.

As I already said, this ornament leads the others in “Deck the Halls.”  The sound clip goes for about 24 seconds, and it has some fun, jazzy rifts on the song.  However, I noticed something as I was listening to it by itself – it doesn’t stand that well on its own.  There are a couple of places where it is obvious you are supposed to have the others as they fill in the melody and this one cuts out to allow them to have it.  It doesn’t sound bad on its own, but it doesn’t sound as good as the others do solo.

Of course, if you buy all three, that’s no issue at all.  The three ornaments really do compliment each other, and it is that fun that made me want to buy all three of them.

The other thing I noticed about this ornament is the tip.  Yes, the others tip as well, but this one has the worst tip of the three.  It still has a solid base, so if you want to set it out to be displayed, that isn’t an issue at all.

While Swingin’ Sax isn’t my favorite in the series, it is still fun.  And combined with the other two, you’ll definitely be glad you bought it.

Curious to see them in action together?  Check out my Youtube video.

Original Price: $24.95