Over the years, my brothers and I have accumulated a lot of Christmas
ornaments. So many, in fact, that it’s at the point that there are some
big decisions to be made when it comes time to decorate the tree. They
simply won’t all fit anymore. As for me, I have enough Winnie the Pooh
ornaments that I could decorate an entire tree just with residents of
the Hundred-Acre Wood. And I know there are many Pooh ornaments, just
within the past decade, that I don’t have, to say nothing of all
the ones that have been made in years past. There are a lot of Pooh
ornaments floating around out there.
One of my very first Pooh
ornaments was Winnie the Pooh from Hallmark’s 1993 Winnie the Pooh
collection. My family has always made an effort to celebrate Advent with
devotions and Advent calendars, and on each Sunday leading up to
Christmas, our Advent activities would conclude with one of my brothers
or me searching for a hidden present. In 1993, mine was this ornament.
At first, I didn’t recognize the subject, partly because Pooh’s fur is very textured here, unlike its smooth appearance in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
and partly because Pooh and skis seemed an unlikely combination. But
Pooh it was, and he was the first in a shower of Pooh-related gifts that
year. I’m not usually one to pine for specific presents at Christmas,
but I had my heart set on a big plush Pooh, and I got one, along with
several ornaments. This intrepid fellow was a messenger, zooming in on
his skis to give me a hint of what was to come.
Like most
Hallmark ornaments, Pooh is made of hard plastic. His fur is a bright,
golden color about halfway between yellow and orange, and as I
mentioned, it is finely textured so that it really does look like fur.
He wears the same red shirt as always, along with a turquoise scarf and a
green knit hat topped with a white ball of fluff, at the top of which
is the ring for the hook. His right foot is raised, with the brown ski,
which looks homemade from a plank of wood and some rope, standing up
straight. His left foot is flat on the ground. In each hand he holds a
ski pole, which is simply a knobbly brown stick.
Given the
obviously snowy conditions, I might think that Pooh would be chilly with
no mittens and no pants, but I guess his fur must be very warm. As
always, that warmth extends to his personality. His little black eyes
are augmented with tiny white pinpricks that help him look more lively,
and hovering just above them are two black eyebrows. His shiny black
nose rests atop a round snout, and he has a wide sculpted smile allowing
us just a glimpse inside his pink mouth. He looks happy and excited.
While there is nothing interactive about this figure, I really don’t
see that as a drawback, since there are so many other Pooh ornaments
that do incorporate light, sound or motion. Because he doesn’t have a
full flat base at the bottom, Pooh doesn’t stand quite as steadily as
many Hallmark ornaments do; nonetheless, the skis provide enough support
that he usually will stand with no trouble, and he’s just the right
size to hang comfortably from most branches. I would expect that Pooh
would be a little unsteadier on his feet in such a situation, but I’m
glad that Hallmark has given him the opportunity to ski like a pro!
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