Penguins everywhere

When I arrived at work, I found a penguin book on my desk, along with a couple of pages ripped out of last year’s Cute Overland day-by-day calendar and a few missing disks for a Penguins of Madagascar toy that shoots them from its mouth. (It’s probably safe for a child to use, but it makes you wonder.) The book consists of page after page of astounding photographs by Mitsuaki Iwago. All this penguin excellence came from Cheryl Levenbrown, a colleague who regularly sends penguin things and penguin news my way. She’s also one of the top two Bruce Springsteen fans that I know. Today’s “ornament” is a contribution from Cheryl. As you can see in the photo, it’s actually a key chain, but it hangs easily on the tree, so I’ve included it in the collection. I’ve got a few other key chains that I hang on the tree as well. One of these days I’ll cut off the key chain part and nobody will be able to tell the difference. Anyway, thanks, Cheryl, for all the penguins.

Floating penguin key chain

Acquired: June 2004

Number: 230

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Out of order

So I missed making a post yesterday, the first time that’s happened since I started the blog. I’m going to blame the penguin ornaments. Taking down the Christmas trees — all three of them — and the other penguin ornaments turned into a big chore this year because I decided to start the blog and needed to take pictures while making sure I had accounted for all of them. I also thought it would be a good idea to measure each one to provide a sense of scale and to assign numbers to the first couple of hundred ornaments like the ones I began numbering as the collection grew. Since January, my dining room table has been the staging ground for this operation (and a large portion of my TV room floor). Last night I could see the light at the end of tunnel and set a goal to free the table from the penguins once and for all. I was so focused on the task that midnight came and went before I realized that I had not made a blog entry for the day. Oh, well. It was bound to happen. I thought about doing two entries today to make up for it, but it would still leave no entry for March 29, so I’m just going to move on and try not to screw up again. For tonight, we have a small straw-like penguin that I’ve randomly assigned the number 40. I’m almost certain that’s too low, but this one has been around for a long time and certainly belongs in the first hundred. It’s really cute, designed well and executed beautifully, and it’s one of my favorites. I put it on the wood tree in the TV room last year because it’s made from some sort of plant stem fiber, along with a couple of other straw-like penguins you’ll be seeing here a little later. The last few posts have been in numerical order, not that I’m going to keep that up forever, but I’m skipping over No. 39 tonight because that ornament figures in a bigger story that is yet to come. Maybe we can pretend No. 39 is the missing post of March 29, 2010.

Small, straw-like penguin

Number: 0040

Size: about 2.25 inches tall

Keeping warm

Here’s another penguin peeking out of a mitten, this one made of wood. As you can see, it came from Boston, where I found the ornament at the Faneuil Hall Market. My old friend Rusty King and I had taken the Boston shuttle flight for a three-day weekend trip in 1984 or maybe a year or two later. I think it was early spring, but I remember being as cold as I have ever been. The only two times that I might have been colder were riding a slow chair lift against the wind at Mt. Gore in the Adirondacks and skiing on the north side of Mont Tremblant north of Montreal where I actually found a very tiny spot of frostbite on one of my toes. It was so cold and windy driving up there, I had to stop several times to reattach the canvas top on my Jeep Wrangler. Brrrr.

Wooden penguin in a Boston mitten

Acquired: 1984 or a year or two later

Number: 0038

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Making music

This set of musicians came from a catalog given to me by Carol Bakinowski, a former colleague at The New York Times. Almost certainly this was in the fall of 1982 when my penguin “thing” became public knowledge at work. During the Falklands war that year, one of our photo editors ordered a packet of stock photos, hoping to use them with the many stories we would print about the south Atlantic islands. Most of the pictures weren’t usable with our coverage of the war however, because they showed the colonies of penguins that nested in the islands. They didn’t go to waste. The editor gave me blow-ups, which I framed and hung in my bedroom. I still have them, but don’t have them hanging anywhere in the house. There’s no room for them with all the penguin objects and artwork I’ve accumulated since then.

Set of four wood musicians with shiny white fronts

Acquired: 1982

Number: 0023 0024 0025 0026

Size: about 2.75 inches tall

Winter fun

Here’s another set of four wooden ornaments from the early years. I’ve always referred to them as the “winter fun” set, probably because of the one hurling a snowball and how happy he looks. There’s at least one other ice cream in the collection, plenty of gift bearers and several others carrying a green felt bag like the one in this group. I wonder what's in those sacks. Money, I hope.

Set of four wooden winter fun penguins

Acquried: around 1980

Number: 0019 0020 0021 0022

Size: about 2.75 inches tall

All dressed up

Proper top hats and red bow ties have these gentlemen in a festive mood. They look like they might be singing. I’m trying to figure out why the ones with the champagne bottle and the umbrella have bow ties while the one with the peppermint stick does not. I find beaks, bells, skis and other wooden pieces all the time and glue them back on, but I don’t remember ever seeing a loose bow tie anywhere. A lot of times, pieces are missing before the ornaments are bought. Sometimes I don’t notice the missing parts at the time, but even when I do, it doesn’t stop me from buying the ornament.

Acquired: around 1980

Number: 0016 through 0018

Size: about 3 inches tall

Roly poly

I’ve used roly poly to describe a lot of the rotund ornaments in my collection, but these wooden penguins were the originals. Everything about them is big and round from their bodies and heads to their feet and beaks. I never have been able to figure out why two are carrying a Christmas tree and wrapped gift and the other has what seems to be a beach ball. It shouldn’t seem so odd to me though, because a lot of my childhood Christmas memories are from growing up in south Florida.

Acquired: around 1980

Number: 0013 through 0015

Size: about 2.5 inches tall

Old friends

This set has always been one of my favorites, something about the round bodies and heads and the big red beaks, the knitted hats and scarves, I guess. Two gray penguins and two black are carrying a wreath, a candy cane and two wrapped gifts.

Acquired: Late 1970s or early 80s

Number: 009 through 0012

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Taking count

I’m taking the bold move of assigning numbers to the first couple of hundred of my penguin ornaments. Much of this will be from memory and a few records like airline tickets and credit card receipts, but mostly I’ll be guessing. I feel fairly confident that today’s post features my second set of penguin ornaments, but I don’t remember who gave them to me or whether I bought them somewhere. All I know is that I’ve had them almost since the beginning when I would pack the ornaments away in egg cartons. All of the early ornaments were small and most would fit easily in each egg compartment. I thought I really had something by the time I was up to about six egg cartons. Now, I need six or seven big plastic storage tubs of various sizes to store them all. These four are holding various Christmas items: a wreath, a candy cane, a bag of something (maybe gold) and what looks like a rocket, but it may be a bird house.

Four wooden penguins with wreath, candy cane, felt sack and rocket or bird house

Acquired: late 1970s or early 80s

Number: 0005 through 0008

Size: about 3.75 inches tall

It came with the house

When I bought my brother and sister-in-law’s house in the Poconos it was like moving into a familiar and comfy place. They didn’t take everything with them, including my two nieces who continued to live there. My first night in the house in the summer of 2007, I found this little penguin on a shelf and noticed that it had a hole in its head. Perfect for a tree ornament. Well, I put the penguin with some other knickknacks and forgot about it until after Christmas. That’s when I glued a piece of string into the hole in the head and added the ornament to the tree. I think it originally came from Target, which features other products that have penguins like this one.

Heavy Target-style penguin, red tie with green and white stripes, red earmuffs

Acquired: 2007, but made into an ornament Jan. 19, 2008

Number: 0451

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Price: free

Spring time

This trio of penguins would be a fine addition to the collection on their own, but they have a distinctive feature that gives them a special bounce. Each is attached to a bungee spring that lets them bob up and down. An extra bonus is that you can hang them from a high branch to fill in an empty hole lower on the tree. They have a non-ornament friend, a candle snuffer, with a priceless expression appropriate for the duty entrusted to him.

House of Lloyd Christmas Around the World Bungee Penguins, Made in China

Acquired: December 2000, gift from my sister Gale Vincent West
Number: 0141 0142 0143

Size: 2.75” tall

Welcome to our igloo

You won’t find penguins from the southern hemisphere in an igloo in the Arctic north, unless you’re looking at a penguin Christmas tree ornament.

This is a good example of the old European style in Christopher Radko ornaments. Click on the picture to make it large and you can see the details on the penguins, the Christmas tree through the front door and the coating of snow and ice that hangs over the window in back. This was another gift from my friend Anne Cronin.

Acquired: 2000 or before

Number: 0145

Price: gift

Size: about 3 inches tall 

True blue

This penguin almost looks black, but you can see it’s true color shining through, especially near the white portions. It has an unusual face for a penguin, with a red mouth under a big nose-like beak. Also unusual is its gold turban-like headwear. The price seemed unusual too, until I realized this might be a Christopher Radko ornament from Poland, which also explains the rich colors and the nice design details.

Dark blue penguin with gold turban, Komozja, Poland, possibly Christopher Radko, Noël Eternel, Montreal, Quebec

Acquired: February or March 2006

Number: 290

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Price: 28.99 $Can

Double duty

The green glittery hat makes this one good for two holidays — Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day. Getting the ornament for less than a dollar is almost as good as finding a pot o’ gold at the end of a rainbow.

Timeless Treasures by Nicole metal penguin with green glittery top hat and wings, big red bow tie and wiry legs

Acquired: Dec. 17, 2009, A.C. Moore crafts store, Stroudsburg, Pa.

Number: 757

Size: about 5 inches tall

Price: 80 cents

Broadway baby

Check out the way he's holding his candy cane and take a look at the fancy footwork. This guy is cutting the rug or maybe he’s ready for his Broadway. I just came from a New York Philharmonic performance at Lincoln Center celebrating Stephen Sondheim’s 80^th birthday, which is later this month. Nobody sang “Broadway Baby” but there were a lot of other songs from “Follies” and other Sondheim shows. One of the highlights was Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin singing “Move On,” which brought back memories of when I first saw them in “Sunday in the Park with George” on Broadway a quarter of a century ago. This ornament was a real bargain, and I found it at my local supermarket.

Fabulous Home Holiday blown glass soft shoe with candy cane, black top hat with red trim, and blue, green and gold scarf, Mr. Z’s grocery store (now Weis market), Tannersville, Pa.

Acquired: November 26, 2007

Number: 430

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: $2 ($2.99 minus $0.99 discount)

Snow angel

I have penguins with snowmen, penguins with snowballs, penguins playing in the snow, even penguins filled with snow, but this is the only penguin I have making a snow angel. The flat glass bulb is covered with a snowy frosting and a painted penguin is flapping its wings and feet to make the angels wing and flowing gown. The ornament is also filled with snowflakes, like a number of others in the collection. I wonder if I’m supposed to fill them with water so the snow inside can be shaken like a snow globe, but I’m afraid of making a mess or breaking the ornament.

Snow Caps by Seasons of Cannon Falls, MN, flat glass snow-filled bulb with painted penguin making a snow angel

Acquired: July 29, 2009, Christmas Spirit, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Number: 692

Size: 4 inches in diameter

Price: $17.50

Flying home

I have two pilot penguins: the one from last week and the one above in the blue airplane that was just added to the collection last year. I’m flying home from Mexico today and I’ve got some penguins flying home with me in my carryon luggage. Did I score any penguin ornaments? Not really and not surprisingly. I knew it would be a challenge. But I did find some knitted penguin finger puppets in the old town market in Puerto Vallarta. I'll stuff them with something and sew on a loop of hanging string. I already have an ornament made from a similar finger puppet, but these look a little different. And they were cheap (20 pesos each, about $1.70) so I bought them both because their feet are different colors.

Another penguin is flying home with us too. It’s not a Christmas ornament or decoration, but I haven’t started a blog called “My Other Penguins” yet, so I thought it would be O.K. to show it off here.

North Pole collection 2009 penguin in a blue airplane with wire “hands.” A huge red felt tie and a green felt hat.

Acquired: November 19, 2009, JC Penney, Lehigh Valley Mall, Whitehall, Pa.

Number: 0733

Size: 4.5 inches long, 4 tall and 2.75 inches wide

Price: $5.99 ($11.99 before discount)

Two knitted penguin finger puppets, one with pink feet, the other with yellow.

Acquired: March 13, 2010, Old town market square, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
Number: 0770, 0771
Price: 20 pesos each, about $3.50 total U.S.

Knitted finger puppet ornament

Acquired: December 17, 2004, Be Seated (a.k.a. Tabwa), Greenwich Avenue, New York City

Number: 0261

Size: 3.5 inches long

Painted wood penguin figurine, about 8 inches tall. Puerto Vallarta airport, March 11, 2010, $66 U.S.

One of a kind

I was at the holiday fair at Grand Central when I was faced with a dilemma. Here was a box full of beaded penguins, each in its own handcrafted pattern. How could I pick one and leave the rest behind or go way over budget and take them all? Finally I decided I could afford one this year and hope the booth was open next year when I could buy another. I’m not even sure they were intended to be tree ornaments, but each one had a ribbon tied around its neck for hanging. I still have the tag attached with the name of the artist, a disadvantaged person from the townships of Capetown, South Africa.

Monkeybiz South Africa bead ornament

Acquired: December 21, 2009, Grand Central Terminal Holiday Festival, New York City

Number: 764

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: $25

From here to Halifax

It was nice to find a penguin sea captain in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a place still very dependent on the sea. The way the weather changes, it can feel like your on a ship instead of an island. The one with the pink collar, a gift from my friend Grace Wong, must be the missus on the widow’s walk, waiting for his return. The captain came with a nifty ribbon which I left on the ornament.

Sea captain at the wheel with pipe

Acquired: May 13, 2001, Christmas by the Sea, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Number: 0146

Size: 2.75 inches tall

Captain’s wife with pink collar and bow

Acquired: 2001
Number: 147

Size: 2.75 inches tall

Painted pewter

The German tradition of painted pewter ornaments has been kept alive at Wilhelm Schneizer Pewter since 1796. The metal is mostly flat in slight bas relief, but it looks fully three dimensional thanks to the detail on the penguin, his star-topped tree, the sled full of Christmas presents tied with wide ribbon bows and the basket of yummy looking fish balanced on top.

It came from Christmas Rocks in Houston, when I was in town to finish off another collection of mine. The Houston Astros were the last stop on my tour of all the Major League Baseball stadiums. My first was in Oakland in the summer of 1978, just a few months before I got my first penguin tree ornaments. There’s more to tell about the trip to Houston, but I left Christmas Rocks with a big box full of neatly packed ornaments, so there will be plenty of opportunities to tell you more.

Wilhelm Schneizer painted pewter ornament, Diessen, Germany

Acquired: Sept. 27, 2008, Christmas Rocks, Houston, Texas

Number: 509

Price: $23

Size: about 2 inches tall, 2.25 inches long

Check mate

The tagua nut can be carved and left to harden to create little figurines that look like they are made from ivory. The brown around the penguin’s feet and it’s eyes are parts of the outer shell of the nut. I lived for decades without ever hearing about the tagua nut, also known as vegetable ivory, but not too long before I received this ornament as a gift from my nieces, I had bought a tagua nut chess set, where all the pieces represent species from the Galapagos Islands. The kings are whales, the queens are dolphins, the bishops are tropical fish, the knights are seahorses, the rooks are penguins and the pawns are tortoises. Years ago I had an opportunity to buy an alabaster set at the same chess shop in Greenwich Village. All the pieces were sea creatures, including Neptune and/or Poseidon as the kings and penguins for the 16 pawns. Every time I was in the neighborhood, I would go look at the alabaster chess set in the window, but I always thought it was too expensive or too frivolous for me to buy it. When I finally decided to get it, the set was gone from the window, and a shop clerk said they didn’t expect to get another one. For years, I continued to check the window for a penguin chess set. Finally, the tagua nut set appeared and I went straight in to the store and bought it.

Ten Thousand Villages, tagua nut penguin, made in Ecuador

Acquired: December 25, 2007

Number: 446

Size: 2.125 inches tall

Tagua nut chess set with penguin rooks, Village Chess Shop, New York City, Feb. 20, 2002 

How it all began

 I should have put these black and white wood musicians up as my first post, because this is how the collection began. My mother, Jeanne Parsons, whose birthday is today, found them through a wholesale florist, and gave them to me for Christmas in 1978. Mom was a great florist, working as manager of three shops in Boca Raton, Pompano Beach and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea for many years and serving as a leader in various florist associations and as a floral design teacher. This was about the same time I had begun collecting penguins in general.

My first penguin came in 1964 in Nancy Leslie’s art class at Deerfield Beach Junior High. I made it myself as part of an assignment in a technique called slab sculpture, where you roll out the clay like cookie dough, cut out shapes and put them together to create the sculpture. My idea was to join two penguin-shaped slabs together in the back and leave the front open, painting the inside white to look like its belly. Smaller pieces were attached to make the feet, wings and beak. Miss Leslie gave me a lot of coaching to make the penguin strong enough to survive the kiln. “If your sculpture breaks, you get an F,” she proclaimed to the class. We would leave our finished projects to be fired overnight and find out the next day if we passed or failed. A lot of things could go wrong. Another project I did was supposed to be a white platter with a bas-relief grape design in the middle, but it came out orange because everyone else in the class was using red clay. Miss Leslie convinced me that it looked good that way, but I always wonder how it would have looked in white. Well, the penguin had a mishap too. “It’s going to break,” Miss Leslie predicted on the day I handed it over to her to be fired. It survived not only its first trip to the kiln, but also the second after I had painted it with glaze. The color of the glaze doesn’t show until after it’s gone through the firing process. Somehow the labels got mixed up and my penguin came out a shiny green instead of black. Miss Leslie tried to convince me that it looked good, just like my orange platter, but I insisted on another coat of glaze to cover up the green. She was still amazed that the penguin had survived two trips through the kiln and warned me again about my grade. I insisted on firing it again and she agreed. It actually took two more firings to get it to a point where I was happy and I think I ended up with an A.

It was my only penguin for years and it didn’t get much attention, but when I moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1978, I had it on display in my living room where it became a conversation piece. Everyone wanted to know, “Why a penguin?” I never had a good answer. They’re cute. They’re funny. They’re interesting. What’s not to like? Whatever it was about 1978, I was soon seeing penguins in shop windows and at art shows. I was getting penguins as gifts, and then at Christmas, I got my first penguin tree ornaments from Mom. Their crude construction has a kind of slab sculpture style to them, which fits in nicely with the sculpture I made as an eighth-grader. It was a good way to start collecting.

Black and white set of four wooden penguin musicians

Acquired: December 1978, gift from my mother, Jeanne Parsons

Number: 1-4

Size: Each about 2.5 inches tall

Slab sculpture penguin, 8th grade art class project, about 8 inches tall

A happy birthday

It was my birthday, three years ago today, and my sister Gale came for a visit from Florida to help me celebrate and to keep me company as I recovered from heart surgery. I don’t remember why, but we found ourselves at the Central Park Zoo, probably to see the excellent penguin exhibit where you can watch the penguins both above water and below. I poked around in the gift shop, but didn’t see any penguin items that I needed. Somehow, Gale saw this ornament and secretly bought it for me as a surprise. We also went to the rain forest exhibit where I found out that I was not the only one with a birthday. A sign at the colobus monkey exhibit said that baby Kima was born at the zoo on March 8 one year earlier.

Holiday Greetings, Ornaments Unlimited glass ball from Central Park Zoo

Acquired: March 8, 2007

Number: 357

Size: 3 inches tall

Flying south

Who says penguins can’t fly? Don’t tell this little wooden pilot in his green airplane, because maybe they can. They have the ability to propel themselves out of the water and have been observed “porpoising” as it is called, when they are at sea. They are airborne, if only for a few moments, but it’s not really flying. At some point in the distant past, a great-great grandpappy and great-great grandma penguin were able to fly, just like other birds. Those are wings, not flippers, on the penguins we see today, and their bodies are covered with feathers adapted to the cold and water. It’s possible to see penguins fly at a number of zoo exhibits that allow you to watch them underwater. They zip around just like their feathered cousins in the sky. I’m flying today, too, on my way to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara for a little relaxation in the sun.

Wood penguin in a green airplane

Acquired: 1980s, Macy’s Herald Square, New York City
Number: 0073

Size: 3 inches wide, 3 inches long and xx inches tall

In the pink

This glass penguin’s beak and high feet have a pinkish tint. I’ve bought a lot of ornaments at Macy’s, especially the Herald Square store in New York. This ornament came from a Macy’s in New Jersey when I lived in the Garden State. The receipt is probably buried deep in a box upstairs. If I find it someday I’ll be able to publish the exact date I bought it and how much it cost.

Acquired: December 2002, Macy’s, Monmouth Mall, Eatontown, N.J.

Number: 203

Price: Undetermined

Size: about 3.5 inches tall

Looks like a snow globe

You want to shake this ornament and watch the snowflakes dance around the penguin and two fir trees, but there’s no liquid inside and no loose snow flakes either. Another great find from my sister Xena and brother-in-law John.

Crate and Barrel penguin and two trees in a glass dome

Acquired: December 2007

Number: 577

Size: 3 inches tall

Happy feet

There’s so much going on with this guy, I almost don’t know where to start: the big white boa, those rosy cheeks, the glitter-dusted face, and the big clear belly full of snow painted with red snowflakes and what looks like pinwheels and flowers. All of those things set this ornament apart from the rest of the pack, but what does it for me are those crazy feet dangling at the bottom.

Seasons of Cannon Falls glass, snow-filled bulb with a penguin head and dangling feet, made in China

Acquired: July 29, 2009, Christmas Spirit, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Number: 693

Size: 5.5 inches tall

Price: $10.50

Two-sided side view

I like the way this flattish ornament is carved and painted slightly differently on each side to give it a 3D effect. I also like the primary colors on the red hat, blue scarf and yellow beak and feet. I think it might have been a gift and I’m sorry I don’t remember who gave it to me. It’s one of my favorites.

Carved and painted flattish wood penguin with blue scarf and red Santa hat

Acquired: 1980s

Number: 0148

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Set of five

Both sides of each of these five ornaments are painted the same; there’s no front and back, just two fronts. They were part of the windfall from Macy’s when their holiday shop included an all-penguin tree. After that, I had enough ornaments to do an all-penguin tree of my own.

Set of five flat wooden penguins skiing, skating, playing hockey, playing a drum and carrying a gift

Acquired: Macy’s Herald Square, New York City
Number: 0099 through 0103

Size: 4.5 to 5 inches tall

Rules were made to be broken

After checking into my hotel for a convention in San Francisco, I went out to get a haircut and to buy a couple of things I had forgotten to pack. I found a hair salon in a nearby mini mall, which also happened to have a San Francisco Music Box Company store. Yes, they had Christmas ornaments, so I went in to see what I could find. The clerk asked me if I was looking for anything in particular, then showed me this musical penguin and maybe one or two others that I already owned. I looked around a little more before going to the checkout counter, where the clerk had boldly placed this:

It’s a wind-up music box with a pair of penguins that skate around the rink to the tune of “Winter Wonderland.” The ornament plays “White Christmas” when you press the bottom. The penguin on the ornament matches the penguins playing on and around the skating rink, and it’s carrying the same tree that is perched on top of the music box. I try to obey a rule about buying only tree ornaments, but I think I was justified in making an exception this time.

San Francisco Music Box Company musical ornament that matches Ice Fantasy Penguin Twirly skating rink music box

Acquired: September 9, 2000, San Francisco Music Box Company
Number: 0187

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: Much more than I expected to spend that day