Baby dolls

These two ornaments look like they would be just at home dangling over a baby’s cradle as they would hanging on a Christmas tree. 

Coyne’s & Company plush baby toys with green and pink scarves and present and star arches

Acquired: August 8, 2010, The Christmas Shop, St. Michael’s, Md.

Number: 0806 0807

Size: 6.55 inches tall

Price: $3 each

Former key ring

This little plush penguin came to me from Germany thanks to my friends Tim and Nancy Anderson, who bought it on a trip to Berlin. It has a label that calls it a “Button in ear” (Knopf in Ohr) animal. Penguins have no ears, so this one’s label is buttoned to a wing. There was a key ring, which I removed. I was in Berlin later on for about 24 hours and didn’t have any luck finding a penguin ornament. I found a toy shop that made and sold wooden figurines. They had penguins. They had ornaments. Just no penguin ornaments. I also went to the zoo thinking there might be souvenir shops nearby. No such luck. I didn’t actually go in the zoo because it was late in the day, but I think there was a gift shop inside. In all this futile search, I saw a lot of Berlin during my short stay. I’d like to go back and try again.

Steiff “Button in Ear” plush penguin with brownish beak and feet

Acquired: January 24, 2007, gift from Tim and Nancy Anderson

Number: 0356

Size: 4 inches tall

Knitted scarf

It’s a good thing I started keeping track of the penguin ornaments because I have no recollection of buying this one. It actually came from one of my favorite Christmas stores, the little Christmas Cottage in midtown Manhattan. They always have interesting ornaments, including a lot with New York City themes. I check in once or twice a year when I’m in that neighborhood and almost always come out with a penguin or two. I even found a string of penguin lights there, actually two of them, which I had been trying to find for a few years. Anyway, this is a cool little plush penguin with a nice knitted scarf.

  

Plush penguin with black beak, maroon knitted scarf and red earmuffs

Acquired: December 9, 2005, Christmas Cottage, 7^th Avenue and 55^th Street, New York City

Number: 274

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: $14.03

Tigers and Blue Jays and Penguins. Oh, my!

I was driving from Detroit to Toronto when I found this key ring at a gas station in Ontario, Canada. I was on a trip around Lake Erie, also stopping in Cleveland, to see baseball games in my quest to visit all the major league stadiums. I finished that collection a few years later (though now I’m missing the new ballpark in Minneapolis), but the penguin ornament collection shows no signs of letting up. This penguin is another key ring that I decided was close enough for me to put it on the tree.

Canada key ring

Acquired: June 12, 2004, Ontario, Canada gas station

Number: 247

Size: 4 inches tall

Happy feet

This ornament represents why I keep going to Christmas shops. You never know what kind of surprise is waiting for you inside. It makes me happy just to look at this little plush penguin with its dangling legs and big bootie-like feet.

Grey plush penguin with shoestring legs and big orange feet

Acquired: April 3, 2010, The Christmas Mouse, Williamsburg, Va.

Number: 244

Size: 6 inches tall

Price: $4.50

Worth the wait

I knew this penguin was coming long before it joined the collection. My friend David Belcher had bought it and told me about it a few years before he finally gave it to me. It was a busy time for both of us, and when our paths crossed, it was usually unplanned and unexpected.  For example, once during a layover on my way to the Greek islands, we had a chance to catch up with each other at the Athens airport, of all places, because he had a short flight delay going the other way on his journey home. Well, the penguin made it to me a few years after that surprise encounter and it’s been a happy addition to my penguin tree ever since.

Stuffed penguin with tall Santa hat, red scarf with green trim, red mittens and big blue googly eyes

Acquired: 2004

Number: 231

Size: 9.25 inches

Beanie babies

When I wrote in “About My Penguin” that everyone gives me penguin ornaments, I forgot to mention my relatives’ and friends’ pets. I bought one of these Ty beanies myself, and got the other one a couple weeks later from Kooki, the loveable Yorkie who lives with my sister Xena and brother-in-law John.

Ty beanie babies

Acquired: December 2002, Hazlet Card Shop, New Jersey, gift from Kooki

Number: 2001, 2005

Size: 4.25 inches tall

J oy

A stuffed penguin on a wooden block with a metal sled hanging on its shoulder and a sprig of holly on the tip of its wing: put it all together and it spells J-O-Y. This ornament represents the point at which I started keeping track of when I got a new one, where I got it, who gave it to me, etc. This one came from Noël Eternel in Montreal, one of my favorite Christmas shops. Although I started keeping better records with this ornament, I forgot to measure it before packing it after last Christmas, and I didn’t write down the exact date I bought it.

Stuffed penguin with sled on a child’s block that spells joy

Acquired: September 2002, Noël Eternel, Montreal, PQ

Number: 0195

Raggedy penguin

I’m pretty sure this isn’t really a penguin ornament, but I decided to make it one when it was given to me. For the last two years it hasn’t been on any of my Christmas trees, but neither have any of the other stuffed ornaments. Two years ago, we ran out of room on the trees and my sister Gale suggested hanging the fabric ornaments on garland in the windows. It was a good idea that we repeated last year because we ran out of room again even though I had expanded to three trees.

Stuffed penguin with patched knit hat and plaid vest

Acquired: unknown

Number: 0170

Size: 8 inches tall

Red, white and blue

I’m fairly certain that this plush penguin was given to me at a penguin tree party I had in the 1990s in New Mexico. It’s blue hat and red sweater make it appropriate for posting on an American holiday. It also has a plaid bow tie and two enormous yellow feet. It used to play a Christmas song, when you pressed its left foot, but the music stopped in December 2006. For some reason, I made a note of that, but never wrote down the name of the song it played.

Plush penguin with blue hat and plaid bow tie

Acquired: probably a gift in the 1990s

Number: 0165

Size: 5.5 inches

Going to the zoo

You’ve probably heard this one. I know I have. Many times.

A police officer stops a driver in a white convertible when he sees the back seat is full of penguins.

“Where do you think you’re going with these penguins?” the officer asked, as he tried to remember if there was anything he learned back in the police academy about laws concerning the transportation of penguins.

“I’m taking them to the zoo,” the driver replied.

“Well, O.K.,” the officer said, satisfied that everything must be on the up-and-up. “Drive carefully and get them there safely.”

“Thank you, officer,” the driver said as he drove off toward the zoo.

The next day, the officer sees the white convertible drive by, and to his surprise, the back seat is still full of penguins. He pulled the car over, looked in disbelief at the driver, and asked, ”Are these the same penguins you had yesterday.?”

“Why, yes, they are,” replied the driver.

“Well, I thought you told me you were taking them to the zoo,” the officer said.

“That’s right, officer,” said the driver. “And they had such a good time, today I’m taking them to a ball game.”

This is one of only a few penguin jokes I know. It seemed like a good time to tell it with this ornament that I bought at a highway rest stop on my way to the zoo. He’s made of felt and has a music chip implanted in his belly that plays “We wish you a Merry Christmas.” I was staying in Brisbane, which I had added to my Australian journey for one purpose: to go to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo about an hour or two north of the city. They don’t have any penguins at the zoo, but they do have some mighty ferocious crocodiles and other amazing animals for you to enjoy. Crikey, I had a fantastic time, even though I missed Steve himself, because he was back in New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Plush musical penguin that plays “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” orange feet and beak, wearing red scarf and hat with green trim.

Acquired: On the road to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, Queensland, Australia

Number: 254

Price:

Size: 8.5 inches tall

Jingle bells

If you don’t have time for a trip to Phillip Island for the Penguin Parade, you can catch a boat ride from downtown Melbourne on the south bank of the Yarra River to see the little blue penguins. I found this ornament in a news shop not far from where the penguin boats were docked. I bought another penguin — not a Christmas tree ornament but a framed ceramic tile of a little blue penguin — at one of the craft market booths that stretch along the river on the weekend. And not far away from all this is Melbourne Park where they’re playing tennis now at the Australian Open.

Small plush musical penguin that plays “Jingle Bells,” red feet and beak, red Santa hat.

Acquired: November 2004, south bank of the Yarra River, Melbourne, Australia

Number: 251

Price: 2.95 $AUS

Size: 4 inches tall