Ornament Review: Merriest House in Town - 2018 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun light and music show

Cons: Doesn't interact with any other ornaments

The Bottom Line:

This year's decked out house

Uses the new Power Cord

No interaction

Merry House Joining the Power Cord Family

I have loved the previous crazy decorated house ornaments that Hallmark has released.  They are just so much fun!  So, naturally, it was a no brainer to get Merriest House in Town.

These ornaments take their inspiration from the crazily decorated houses that pop up in various towns around the country.  You know the ones - the ones that sometimes make YouTube with tons of lights and music.  This particular house is a blueish green house with lights all over the place.  Santa's going head first down the chimney and his sleigh, bag, and reindeer are on the roof.  In the front yard are two inflatable snowmen.  The windows light up.  And there are lights on the side of the house that outline a star and spell out "Joy."

Of course, this ornament wouldn't be complete without sound.  When you press the button, you get to hear an upbeat version of "Joy to the World," and the lights flash in time to the music.  It's a lot of fun and last about 30 seconds.

No, this ornament doesn't take batteries.  Instead, it needs to be connected to Hallmark's new Power Cord.  This is different from the rest of the ornaments Hallmark has released in this unofficial series, which take the old Magic Cord.  Since this is the second year the Power Cord has been around and they are creating so many ornaments for this new cord, I'm not surprised they switched over to it for this unofficial series.

However, here's the part that is a bummer.  With the old Magic Cord, all the ornaments that were attached to the cord reacted when any of the ornaments attached to the cord started putting on a show.  That made playing with these ornaments so much fun since the other lights were going crazy as well.  And it was fun to see what the houses would do no matter what ornament was playing.  The new Power Cord allows ornaments to interact in delightful new ways, and I love what they are doing with this technology.  However, the ornaments have to be designed to interact with each other for that to work.  This ornament is an orphan.  There aren't any other ornaments currently designed to work together with it.  It puts on a great display, and I enjoy it.  But I miss watching other ornaments light up in time with the music.

I am hopeful that there will be other ornaments like this in future years, and they will interact.  But nothing like that has been announced.

Since this is a house, the ornament has a nice flat base.  You can set it out to be displayed anywhere you want.  You can also hang it on your tree, and you'll find that it hangs straight.

I did enjoy this ornament this year for what it is, but I really did miss the interaction.  Here's hoping that future years make Merriest House in Town even merrier.

Original Price: $34.99