Piglet Is On His Way to Deliver A Friendly Sort of Gift

In my house, we’ve accumulated so many Christmas ornaments that one Christmas tree is nowhere near sufficient to contain them. The theory is that eventually, my brother Nathan and I will leave home with a hefty collection of ornaments in tow, just as my brother Benjamin did, but right now, we’ve got enough for three trees. We don’t have room for more than one full-size tree, but several years ago, Mom got each of us a small artificial tree where we could hang especially small ornaments.

Every year since, she’s tried to find us Hallmark Keepsake Miniatures to hang on our individual trees. For some reason, these seem to be harder to come by nowadays than when we began our collections. Nonetheless, I can pretty much always count on finding a tiny, adorable ornament in my stocking. This year’s was A Friendly Sort of Gift, from the Winnie the Pooh Collection. Like other ornaments of its size, it fares best on a small tree just because it might get lost on a tree of typical size, but as long as you’re careful about retrieving it when the time comes to undecorate, it does hang nicely from a normal-sized branch.

I have more Winnie the Pooh ornaments than anything else, and this little Piglet is a welcome addition. I’ve always felt a great affinity for Piglet, being of a rather skittish nature myself. Piglet’s a nervous little fellow, but overpowering his jitters is his capacity for friendship, particularly with his very best friend Pooh. In this year’s Hallmark miniature ornament, it’s the friendliness and not the anxiety being emphasized.

Piglet stands about an inch tall, and in his hands he holds a cheerfully wrapped present that is nearly an inch tall itself. The wrapping paper is blue with a pattern of yellow stars and bound with a yellow ribbon, and it’s fun to imagine what might be in there. It’s a very tall, skinny package, so it doesn’t seem likely to be a honey pot, the stereotypical present for a Pooh Bear. It seems that Piglet put on his thinking cap and got his friend something very creative. (Not to worry, though; I’m sure Christopher Robin has a honey pot or two with his name on it!)

Piglet is all smiles here, with one foot down and the other at a 90-degree angle just below the package. The coloring is just right for Piglet, with light pink limbs and face and a magenta jumper with black stripes. He also wears a vibrant green scarf. Attached to the top of the mystery gift is a sprig of holly, complete with berries, and a tag that says ?”. This is also where you’ll find the tiny ring for the hook.

Piglet is starting his year off right. If the weather in the Hundred-Acre Wood is anything like it’s been on the East Coast, he probably had to brave a bit of a blizzard to get his gift out to Pooh, but he’s not letting that stop him. When faced with the right motivation, Piglet tends to find that he is more courageous than he gives himself credit for. Christopher Robin has been known to tell Pooh, “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Something tells me he passed that message on to a Very Small Animal who needed the encouragement.

“Piglet’s on his way to Pooh / with a biggish sort of gift – / there’s so much friendly packed inside, / it’s rather hard to lift.” So goes the rhyme on the back of the box containing this very festive miniature. Hard to lift? Maybe. But I suspect that Piglet doesn’t mind in the slightest.