Hallmark 1996 Woodland Santa Pressed Tin Ornament

While going through images of Santa ornaments I took last year, I came across these images of a Hallmark pressed tin Santa.

I remember many years ago being led to believe that Hallmark ornaments were considered "collectible" and somehow their worth would increase over the years.

Not necessary so.

In fact, I no longer purchase Hallmark items nor do I rarely shop in their stores. It, like most of all retail stores, is packed with merchandise mass produced in China.

Still, if I find Hallmark Santas at garage sales or thrift shops that I like, I might pick it up at a low price.

When deciding which Santas to edit out, I checked the going price of this one on eBay.  At a typical price of less than five dollars, this one was worth more in my collection than letting go for such a meager price.

So, for now, he's a keeper.

Photographing Santa Claus Ornaments That are Hanging on the Tree

Dept 56 Early 1990's

I want to admit this now, I just found this post that I started on January 2nd in my "drafts". I'm actually publishing it on August 26th.

It was my intention and probably my New Year's Resolution to begin documenting my vast number of Santas that I have collected/hoarded over 25+ years.

I can't say that anything I have done over the past year has been so overly time consuming that I would not have time to post a brief essay about a particular Santa or collection of Santas on this blog, but apparently, like my Santas that stay up all year, this blog was a bit neglected.

If I recall correctly, I was taking down my tree and decided to stop and photograph some of my ornaments. These images can be found in other posts. For some reason, I had added four images to this textless draft and I have no idea what topic of choice I had planned on doing with them.

Funny Little Crocheted Santa Face

So, instead of waxing poetic about all I know about Santas, or what I can find on the internet and retell in my blog, I decided to take this time to explain how I created these images.

First, I THINK I used my portrait lens, a Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm1:18 D. I say this because this lens has been on my D90 for quite a while since I take a lot of portraits.

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I like this lens, because it does take some very sweet portraits by softening the skin when I focus on the eyes. It is also good for close-ups...but not too close up. This is why I believe I had my camera set on the automatic micro setting (the one with the tulip) and my flash turned off.

As you can tell by this post...I am not a technical photographer.

I just have fun!








I also came up with a 3 step Photoshop design (not counting adding my name) by selecting the ornament, making a copy, then use a Gaussian Blur on the original to further blur the background thus making the ornament stand out. Then I selected the frame tool and made another copy but adjusted the lighting a couple of times to make is stand out.

So, enough of that!

Just enjoy the images and this Christmas, take some photos of YOUR favorite ornaments!

Vintage Santa Claus Ornaments

Over the years I have collected easily over a thousand ornaments mostly from after-Christmas sales, thrift shops, garage sales, and craft shows.

Most of my collection are considered collectibles, some are vintage, while most are just random.

How could anyone not smile when they look upon this guy's gleeful expression? With a sculpted face made from  papier-mâché, this vintage (or vintage style) Santa has a faux fur beard and a red flannel hat.  

Here is another example of vintage plaster or papier-mâché ornament with a beard created of lamb's wool.

These two have faces that feels more like plastic but their features are painted.

Tucked near the back of trunk of the tree is another, larger plastic faced Santa ornament from the 1960's.

Check back in for more of my vintage Santa Claus ornaments and please comment with information and photos of your own!

Topping off my tree this year was a vintage (or very well done reproduction) of a spun cotton snowflake Santa.