Pretty penguins of blue

I have a blue penguin Christmas tree. 

All the ornaments are blue or mostly blue. It has blue tinsel garland. 

There are blue lights and a blue tree skirt (I forgot to take a picture with the lights on). 

Yes, even the candy canes are blue (and blueberry flavored).

It’s the small tree in the tv room, where I have a blue sofa and a new blue Christmas cloth for the coffee table. Last year, this tree was decorated with all wood ornaments, which will go upstairs on a different shaped tree this year. The big tree is all set up in the living room, but I might add some more ornaments before I take pictures of it. I will probably have an additional tree upstairs this year. That would make five trees total, counting the one at the Trolley Museum in Scranton.

Everybody wins

The Festival of Trees opened Friday at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton with a well-attended reception that raised a lot of money for Toys for Tots. Charlie, Marge and Jen Babaz were there to celebrate with me. Without their help and support I don’t think I would have been able to get the tree ready in time. Mountainhome Antiques, Marge and Charlie’s store, was my official sponsor. My Penguin Tree did not win an award, but there was a lot of great competition.

First Place and the People’s Choice winner was the Hubbard Bicycle Club’s amazing tree that was right next to mine. The decorations were old bicycle parts, the skirt was a ring of their bicycle shirts and a helmet was the tree topper. Scattered amongst the tires and gears and chains were pictures of the club’s members and their adventures.

You can read more about the event here and you can see more pictures here.

Monkeying around

These three plush stuffed penguins, with their monkey-like arms and legs, take up a lot of space on a tree, as you can see in the photos I took using my narrow 6-foot tree. I didn’t actually put them on a tree, partly because they’re so big and partly because we used the stuffed penguin ornaments to decorate the front windows at my house last year.

Acquired: May 2009, Christmas Past, New Hope, Pa.

Number: 0622 0623 0624

Size: 13 to 14 inches tall

Price: unknown

Separated at birth

This penguin is the same one that appears on a similar ornament that I had bought a few months before. The ornaments themselves are a little bit different and they are filled with different types of snow, but there’s no denying the look-alike pinked out penguins painted on them. I lost track of exactly when I bought this ornament or how much I paid for it, but I know it was on one of two springtime trips to New Hope.

Festival of trees update: The opening reception Friday was a great event with excellent food, and my penguin tree drew a lot of attention. No prizes, but the winning trees were spectacular. I promise I’ll get some pictures up soon. Today, we finished two of the home trees, and I’ll have pictures of those soon too.

Flat clear glass ball filled snowballs

Acquired: May 2009, Christmas Past, New Hope, Pa.

Number: 0621

Size: 4 inches diameter

Price: unknown

For whom the bell tolls

I love this little bell. The penguin’s dangling feet are the bell’s clappers and the cloisonné design is very elegant. I was desperately shopping for some graduation gifts when I found this, but couldn’t resist indulging myself. Later, I found enough graduation presents, but one of those grads almost got a penguin ornament. I’m glad I bought this penguin when I did. Tabwa, one of my regular stops when I’m shopping for penguins, was gone the next time I went back in November.

Cloisonné bell with dangling clapper feet

Acquired: May 15, 2009, Tabwa, Greenwich Avenue, New York City

Number: 0620

Size: 2.5 inches tall           

Price: $15.61

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)