Repeats

I felt like this pair of penguins looked familiar, but I wasn’t certain enough to leave A Christmas Past without buying them. It turned out that I already had the guy, a gift from my niece Becky, who found it in Chincoteague, Va., where she was working that summer. Just as well, because now I had an extra. Last year I hung one from the rearview mirror in my car. My Penguin Tree to go!

These penguins look a lot like another penguin couple for which I also happen to have two of the male. I bought Thaddeus and Millicent at Disneyland on my way home from Australia. A few weeks later, my friend and colleague Wallace Schroeder, gave me a couple of ornaments, including another Thaddeus.

Second police officer not shown)

Also at A Christmas Past, I bought a penguin firefighter and penguin police officer that wound up being duplicates. A year later, I bought an identical set, thinking that they would go with a mail carrier ornament. Oh, well, I was wrong. However, all of these are extremely nice ornaments, and I don’t mind at all having repeats.

TJ’s Christmas penguin couple decked out in red

Acquired: September 28, 2008, A Christmas Past, New Hope, Pa.

Number: 0517 0518

Size: 4 inches tall

Male penguin in red vest and hat

Acquired: August 15, 2008, gift from my niece Becky on her birthday

Number: 490

Size: 4 inches tall

Department 56 Christmas Krinkles Thaddeus and Millicent Penguin

Acquired: December 2, 2004, World of Disney Store, Downtown Disney, Anaheim, Calif.

Number: 0256 0257

Size: 4.25 to 4.75 inches tall

Thaddeus

Acquired: December 18, 2004, gift from Wallace Schroeder

Number: 0263

Size: 4.75 inches tall

Kurt S. Adler firefighter and police officer 1

Acquired: September 28, 2008, A Christmas Past, New Hope, Pa.

Number: 0519 0520

Size: 4 inches tall

Price:$7.95 each

Kurt S. Adler firefighter and police officer 2

Acquired: September 13, 2009, A Christmas to Remember, Lake George, N.Y.

Number: 0718 0719

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: $9.99 each

(Note that in just short of a year I acquired 200 penguin ornaments.)

Out of my gourd

I was in San Diego for a journalism conference and had a free afternoon one day. I did two things. I drove to Los Angeles to see a game at the stadium in Anaheim and I found a souvenir penguin Christmas tree ornament. The baseball game was easy, but finding a penguin Christmas ornament in southern California in September took some work. I thought I might have my best chance in Old Town San Diego, an artsy-crafty area mixed in with some historic buildings. I found some penguins in a nifty soap store, but they were neither soap, nor Christmas ornaments so I took a pass. There were a few Christmas tree ornaments in some of the shops, but not any penguins. I went up and down each street and alley and poked my head in almost every door. Nothing. The last shop had a front and back entrance. I walked in, looked around, saw nothing and was prepared to accept defeat. But as I walked out the back door and looked to my right, I saw this painted gourd along with several other gourdy critters hanging on a pegboard. From there it was on to Anaheim to check another baseball stadium off my list. Two missions accomplished.

Painted gourd

Acquired: September 1, 2010, Old Town San Diego

Number: 0366

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: $15

Winnie and Penny

I don’t remember a penguin when I read Winnie the Pooh stories as a child, but thanks to our friends at Disney, we get a frosty Winnie and a penguin friend together in one ornament. Poor Pooh’s ears snapped off. I was able to find one of them last year and glued it back on. If you click on the picture, you can see what a lousy job I did. I’m still hoping the other ear is somewhere in the packing material I use to store the ornaments.

Frosty Winnie the Pooh and a penguin pal

Acquired: December 2004, Downtown Disney, Anaheim, Calif.

Number: 258 (number corrected July 12, 2010

Size: 3.75 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

12 days of Snowbabies

Department 56 produced a 12 Days of Christmas series with their adorable white bisque porcelain Snowbabies representing the gifts in the Christmas carol. This ornament is called “Four Playful Penguins.” The inscription on the base says “4 penguins.” I don’t remember what the other numbers in the limited edition looked like, but this is the only one featuring penguins. I wonder if some collector has the other 11 pieces and can’t find the penguin ornament to complete the set. The series was reintroduced recently, but has been retired again. Here are the other numbers:

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Eleven Icy Igloos

Ten Clocks-A-Chiming

Nine Sledders Sledding

Eight Candles Burning

Seven Babies Singing

Six Gifts For Giving

Five Caribou

Three Shining Stars

Two Puffins Playing

One Baby In A Snowsuit

I bought this one about a year after my other Snowbabies ornament. I stayed in Anaheim on my way home from Australia specifically to go shopping in Downtown Disney for a Spode platter with Disney characters for my sister that I had seen the year before and couldn’t find anywhere else, including online.

Department 56 Snowbabies Four Playful Penguins from 12 Days of Christmas series

Acquired: December 2, 2004, Downtown Disney, Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif.

Number: 255

Size: 4.5 inches tall

Price: $15.50

Snowbabies

Department 56’s Snowbabies series consists of white bisque porcelain figurines for holiday decorating, mostly featuring toddlers in wooly onesies frolicking in the snow with each other and sometimes with arctic creatures like polar bears and penguins. This baby even has angel wings. Kristi Jensen Pierro is the artist behind Snowbabies, which were first introduced by Department 56 in 1987. Some Snowbabies are tree ornaments, but I have only found two with penguins, including this one that I bought at the Department 56 store in Downtown Disney at Disneyland while I was in Los Angeles for a convention. You have to click on the picture and zoom in to see the amazing detail, especially on the baby’s face. The box, which looks like a small green hardbound book, has the number XV on its spine and this poem on its back:

“Best Friends” are we,

My little penguinand me.

Standing closely together,

Treasured memories forever.
I've been to Disney World countless times and lived "next door" in Kissimmee for nearly a year, but this was my first visit to Disneyland, fulfilling a childhood dream of riding the Matterhorn roller coaster.

Department 56 Snowbabies “Best Friends” mini ornament

Acquired: September 10, 2003, Downtown Disney, Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif.

Number: 206

Size: 2.375 inches tall

Price: $12.50