A sweet score

I'm usually not looking for anything specific when I shop for penguin ornaments, but I had been trying to find Pittsburgh Penguin candy cane ornaments for years. Sure, I could probably have looked for them on the internet, but that takes some of the fun out of collecting. Besides, I often browse for penguin ornaments just to see what's out there and I never stumbled upon these online. So, I had an extra bus ticket from my final monthly commuting pass and decided to ride into New York before the ticket expired just to have a fun no-work day in the city. Also, I wanted to mail my Christmas cards from the United Nations post office and keep my annual tradition going at least one more year. On the way back to Times Square I discovered the NHL store and I saw the ornaments through a window.

Six plastic Pittsburgh penguin candy cane ornaments

Acquired: December 20, 2011, Reebok NHL store, New York City, N.Y>

Number: 1029 through 1034

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: $18/set

Light lite

Here’s an ornament I picked up after I finished setting up the tree at the trolley museum last month. I’ve got some others like it, but I like the smaller size of this one.

Small, red changing-light ball, penguin and tree inside

Acquired: December 4, 2011, JC Penney, Viewmont Mall, Scranton, Pa.

Number: 1004

Size: 3 inches tall

Price: $4.99 (originally $9.99)

Pushup pop penguin top

I’ve never had a pushup pop before and I’m not sure what it is, but my guess is that it’s a lollipop in a plastic tube. For me, it’s another penguin ornament, whether or not I ever eat the candy.

Acquired: Weis Market, Tannersville, Pa.

Number: 1003

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: $1.19

Third time’s the charm

I bought four circular penguin ornaments together on a trip to Target, but then found out on the store's website that there was a fifth color in the set. That meant three trips to Target this season just to buy penguin ornaments. Part of the problem was the mysterious rush on penguin ornaments in the stores near where I live. Look at this rack of ornaments at the same Target store where I bought the purple disc ornament. The empty row is where they had the penguins like the one I posted a couple of days ago.

Plenty of ornaments left, but just one penguin. Hmm.

Magenta, blue, green and turquoise Merry Market round, flat penguins with googly eyes

Acquired: November 21, 2011, Target, Stroudsburg, Pa.:

Number: 0994 0995 0996 0997

Size: 4 inches in diameter

Price: $2 each

Purple Merry Market round, flat penguin with googly eyes

Acquired: December 8, 2011, Target, Stroudsburg, Pa.:

Number: 1005

Size: 4 inches in diameter

Price: $2 each

A thousand penguins

Here they are, penguin ornaments No. 999 and No. 1000. I don’t know which one is which, and I don’t care, because it would be impossible to pick one over the other.  I almost reached the big milestone a few days ago when I saw these very ornaments on a charity tree at my local Target store. I even asked the staff if they had any more for sale, but we couldn’t find any. So today I stopped in another Target on my way to the Peace Candle lighting in Easton, Pa., where there was a bin full of them.

Two plastic ball heads with top hats and bow ties
Acquired: November 25, 2011, Target, Lower Nazareth, Pa.

Number: 0999 1000

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: $2 each

Feeling lucky

Hallmark sent me a coupon to use on their big Holiday Open House that started today. You had to spend $50 in order to redeem it, but that’s not hard for me when it comes to penguin ornaments. There were a couple of Keepsake ornaments that I needed and I found some other ornaments to bring the total to just a few dollars short. Well, Hallmark also introduced a mystery ornament this year, a plain box that contained one of three different designs — a penguin, a Santa or a Hawaiian. There's no way to know which one you buy until after you pay for it. I really wanted the penguin, but I wasn’t going to play that game. Maybe I’d wait until the after holiday sales or look for one online instead. But because I needed to spend a little more to hit $50, I said, “Let me have a mystery box.” The clerk put about six boxes on the counter and said, “Pick on.” I gave it my best shot and grabbed one in the middle of the pack. You can see by the picture how this turned out. I got the penguin. Oh, yeah.

Hallmark Keepsake Frosty mystery penguin

Acquired: November 4, 2011, Jill’s Hallmark, Brodheadsville, Pa.

Number: unassigned, but closing in on a thousand

Size: 3 inches tall

Price: $9.95

Carcassonne

You can find more about Carcassonne on the internet than I could ever tell you in this little space. For those who don’t know, which included me until I visited a couple of years ago on a side trip from Barcelona, Carcassonne is a walled city in Southern France that has been restored and preserved as a sort of living time capsule from medieval days. People live there and you can enjoy a choice of hotels and restaurants inside the walls. It’s not the sort of place I would expect to find a Christmas tree penguin, but there was a gift shop near the big church that had ornaments in its window. The store was closed when I first saw it, so I didn’t know if they had any penguins inside, but it looked promising. I went back later and found just this one penguin ornament, but ain’t it a doozie? It’s big. And it plays snippets of 25 Christmas songs as the penguins skate around the frozen pond. The blue, plastic sphere is translucent, which you can see in the rear view. I probably didn’t have to travel such a great distance or go back so far in time for this ornament. Mr. Christmas is based in the U.S. and their ornaments are available in a lot of stores, including one just over the mountain from my house.

Mr. Christmas Gold Label 75^th Anniversary musical skating scene

Acquired: March 14, 2009, Carcassonne, France

Number: 0619

Size: 4.75 inches diameter

Price: I don’t have this written down, but I think it was about 35 or 40 euros. A lot.

Hallmark bargains

Here’s another batch of Hallmark ornaments that I bought at half price after New Year’s. The top one is musical and plays “Sleigh Ride” when you press the button in back by the penguin. The two Spin A Majigs at the bottom are “action” ornaments. When you turn the snowflake cranks at the bottom, the characters wiggle back and forth. All of these, except the bottom ornament, are on the “Winter Fun” tree I entered in the Festival of Trees at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Steamtown National Historic Park in Scranton. The show, which benefits Toys for Tots, officially opens Friday, Dec. 10 and runs through Dec. 31. Did you know that Walt Disney designed the Toys for Tots logo? You can see it here.

Acquired: January 5, 2009, Jay’s Hallmark, Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York City

Snow What Fun Sledders

Number: 0610

Size: 3 inches tall, 3.75 inches long

Price: $8.25 (originally $16.50)

Antarctic Antics South Pole Pals

Number: 0611 0612 0613 0614

Size: 1.25 to 1.75 inches tall

Price: $7.50 (originally $15)

Downhill Fun Spin A Majig

Kicking It Spin A Majig

Number: 0615 0616

Size: 3.5 inches tall and wide

Price: $7.50 each (originally $15)

Computer whiz

I’m not going to pretend to know what I’m missing out on, but this penguin apparently came with a pass code that would have let me into the online world of Webkinz, presumably to find a virtual version of this ornament and a bunch of his animated friends. I’m just in this for the ornament and to have a souvenir of my trip to Florida a couple of Thanksgivings ago. I was in New York this Thanksgiving with a small gathering of the northern division of my family. I didn’t post a penguin ornament yesterday, but I did see a couple of them in a store window that I might go back for after Christmas, if I can hold out that long. It’s not that I forgot to post on the blog yesterday. It’s just that I was having fun with my relatives, I was far away from my ornament notes and I fell asleep early after two rounds of turkey.

Webkinz Ring in the Season penguin with gold bell

Acquired: Nov. 30, 2010,, Cracker Barrel, Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Number: 0574

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Price: $5.99

Christmas Rocks epilogue

The journey’s not over until it’s over. I flew to Texas from Philadelphia, which means I would have to go by New Hope on the drive home. Well, I don’t have to go through New Hope, but I’ll use any excuse to visit a Christmas shop, and New Hope is the home of A Christmas Past, one of my favorites. I never know if I’ll come away with a couple of shopping bags full of penguins or just a handful. I’ve even struck out a couple of times, mostly because I’ve already got whichever penguins they have available from a previous trip. I visit A Christmas Past two or three times a year. Even if I leave empty handed, it’s always fun to stop in and it’s a nice way to take a break during a long drive home.  On this particular visit, I found quite a few penguins, including a couple of the duplicates in my collection. More about those repeats tomorrow.

Kurt S. Adler plastic skaters

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

Number: 0511 0512 0513

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: $9.95 each

TJ’s Christmas penguins with red knit hats and scarves holding gifts, tree and skis

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

Number: 0514 9515 0516

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: unknown

Christmas Rocks, part 3: Play ball

The conference ended in Fort Worth and I still wasn’t sure if I would be allowed back into Houston, but by the time I got there, things were returning to normal. The night curfew was lifted the day I arrived. Some cleanup was still going on downtown. A few sidewalks were taped off where some of the skyscrapers’ windows were broken. I was having some coffee in an atrium of a building near my hotel and looked up to see a worker walking around on the cracked glass ceiling a couple of floors above where I was sitting. I moved. And the Astros’ game with the Atlanta Braves was on for that night. I was finally able to say that I had seen baseball games in all the major league parks. My trip was a success and there was an extra bonus when I discovered a little store called Christmas Rocks.

Clear penguins with red hats, scarves, and bow tie

Acquired: September 27, 2008

Number: 0499 0500 0501

Size: 3.75 to 4 inches tall

Price: $5.95 each

Bits and pieces

These four penguins aren’t part of a set, but they are all made by the same company and I bought them together at a drug store one day. I don’t even remember why I was in the store, but it must have been on my way to work one morning. I was surprised to see such nice ornaments in a chain drug store, especially since the Christmas aisle was about half depleted and it looked like a tornado had gone through. The snowman, for example had no nose. I looked in the cardboard box directly below where the ornament was hanging and found the tip of either a snowman nose or a penguin beak inside. I pocketed the nose tip, bought the ornament and glued it on when I got home. I’m not sure if it was the right nose for the snowman or not, but it came out looking pretty good. Also when I got home, I found two holes in the bottom of the penguin with the tall red polka dot hat where his legs should have been. I imagine he had wiry legs like the penguin in the tool bag, but I think he looks fine as is.

All Merry Brite ornaments acquired December 7, 2007, CVS drug store, Eagle Valley, Pa.

Penguin in a blue bag of toys with white wire legs

Number: 0431

Size: 4.25 inches tall

Price: $2.99

Penguin with snowman and Christmas tree on patch of blue and white glittery snow

Number: 0432

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: $7.99

Roly poly penguin with tall, red hat with white polka dots

Number: 0433

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: $2.99

Penguin and Santa Claus on a green sled

Number: 0434

Size: 2.5 inches tall

$2.99

Big feet, little head

Are the feet too big? Is the head too small? I guess it depends on your point of view. Like Steven Wright says, “Some people see a glass that’s half empty. Some see a glass that’s half full. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.”

Big rotund penguin with huge feet and/or a tiny head

Acquired: November 21, 2007, Volusia Mall, Daytona Beach, Fla.

Number: 0412

Size: 5.5 inches tall

Price: $3.99

Stand clear!

Here come some fast-moving penguins, two on skis, one on a sled, and you’ve got to be on the lookout because these three see-through penguins might be hard to spot  as they rush downhill.

Clear acrylic skiers and sledder with silver highlights

Acquired: November 19, 2007, Macy’s Seminole Town Center, Sanford , Fla.

Number: 0408 0409 0410

Size: 2.25 to 2.75 inches tall

Price: $4.20 each (originally $7)

Recurring roles

These three penguins, who are building an ice fortress and stocking up on snowy ammunition, seem to show up every year at Hallmark even though they are identified as an official series. I’ve got a some of the others including a miniature set with them sledding (posted last month here), one where they are fishing, another where they are caroling, and a new one from this year hanging their Christmas stockings on a fireplace made of ice blocks. All are created by the Hallmark artist Kristina Kline-Gaughran. Snow Fort Fun is an action ornament. Press a lever and the penguin out front spins as if throwing one of the snowballs.

Snow Fort Fun

Acquired: Dec. 3, 2006, Amanda’s Hallmark, the Commons of Holmdel, N.J.

Number: 0343

Size: 2 inches tall by 3.75 inches long

Price: $15

Chilly Fishing Fun

Acquired: Oct. 5, 2007, Jay’s Hallmark, Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York

Number: 0382

Size: 2.75 inches tall by 2.75 inches wide

Price: $12.50

Subzero Serenade

Acquired: Nov. 30, 2009, Jay’s Hallmark, Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York

Number: 0744

Size: 3.25 inches wide

Price: $12.50

A Fishy Wish

Acquired: July 16, 2010, Jill’s Hallmark, Broadheadsville, Pa.

Number: 0784

Size:2.5 inches tall, 2.75 inches wide

Price: $14.95

Swinging on a star

An Eskimo and a little blue penguin ride high on a clear plastic star. It looks a lot like a Hallmark ornament, but I found it at Target.

Home@Target star ornament

Acquired: Nov. 25, 2006, Target, Middletown, N.J.

Number: 316

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: $3.99

Little village

Oops. I went away for the weekend and left my laptop on my desk at work. All the penguin photos are there or I could have figured out a way to post penguin ornaments while I was away. Yes, I have them backed up, but on my desktop computer at home. Lot of good that did me. I figured out how to schedule a post for a date that has already past, so I can get the daily time stamp on the weekend postponed posts. Here a snowman and a penguin meet in the middle of a village painted on an egg-shaped, frost-covered open globe. You get a good view of the village through the clear back of the globe.

Home@Target penguin and snowman skaters

Acquired: Nov. 25, 2006, Target, Middletown, N.J.

Number: 315

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: $3.99

Milestone

Ornament No. 300 is one of my favorites. It looks like a teething ring, except for those tiny dangling parts that would be horrible choking hazards. Too bad, because this ornament could keep a baby busy for hours. The wings are attached with springs and the jingle bells make a racket at even the slightest touch. It makes me happy just to see and touch it. Thanks to ornaments like this one, I go out of my way to stop at Cracker Barrel around Christmas time, even if I don’t get anything to eat.

Jingly penguin that looks like a teething ring

Acquired: September 4, 2006, Cracker Barrel, St. Augustine, Fla.

Number: 300

Size: 4.5 inches tall

Price: $2.99

Pop goes the penguin!

You can’t close the lid, there’s no crank and no music, but this penguin is mounted on a spring and it wiggles like a jack-in-the-box clown when you shake it. Cracker Barrel came through with another excellent penguin ornament. It was a real bargain too. But wait ‘til you see tomorrow’s penguin, also from Cracker Barrel.

Jack-in-the-box penguin

Acquired: September 4, 2006, Cracker Barrel, St. Augustine, Fla.

Number: 0299

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: $3.99

Loud and clear

Here we have a couple of musicians, one with a saxophone and one with a drum, and a gentleman with a top hat and cane who might be the conductor. I wonder if I’m missing any other musicians from band. Those are very nice snowflake-like sound effects coming out of the horn and drum.

Clear acrylic musicians and gentleman with top hat and cane

Acquired: March 2006, Noël Eternel, Montreal, PQ

Number: 0287 0288 0289

Size: 2.25-2.5 inches tall