Hallmark American Girl Doll Christmas ornaments::American Girl ornaments

When you go to shop for Christmas ornaments you have a multitude of choices to find the adorable ornamnets that will make up you Christmas lgihts and decorations stock. You can visit discount stores such as Wal Mart and Target, Kohls or Home Depot, even smaller stores and find a great selection. However for top notch ornaments with familiar themes you can really only go to one place, that is the Hallmark store.

My children were blessed to have an aunt who liked to buy them ornaments with a theme each year. Her angle was the potential for long term appreciation of the collection. For my children the thrill was in the surprise of the new ornamtnet each year. Hallmark always presnts and intersting stable of ornaments to please the collector.

One of the most intricate and therefore exciting collections was the American Girl doll collection offered in the latter part of the 1990s and early years of the new decade. these dolls were very intricate in their design as the American Doll franchise was based on historical periods in which each doll lived. The accompanying stories built out the dolls place in these sections of history, so the individual representations had intricate outfits common to the time period.

The American Girl collection is based on the lives of selected adolescent girls in differing periods of history. The intent is to get your girls more interested in history by approaching the idea from a different perspective, that of the character in a way that girls will identify and become attached to the character.

This is a creative way to bridge the gap between history and a girl's interest. We hear so many stories about how the girl's connection with history is so much less vibrant than that of the boys, who can identify with cowboys, armies and other historical elements. By giving history a personification in the faces of these characters there is a more friendly approach to the girl's frame of interest.

The approach has been wildly successful and the line has evolved into books, clothes, dolls of all sizes and recently a movie based on the character named Kit. Girls all around the world have collected a number of these dolls, just like my daughter has.

Do you have a tree in your Christmas decorating collection that has a specific theme? My wife and daughter take a mid size white artificial tree and put the American Girl ornaments in my daughter's collection together to make the American Girl doll tree. It is really something to behold when they finish.

The unique time period of each character makes for such a diversity that the tree can have a depth of story for those who come to visit our home during the holidays and my daughter delights in showing her collection and discussing each ornament. The creator of the series is one of those geniuses who sits and chuckles at the simplicity of their idea.

 These ornaments are made of fragile materials, so they are not intended for play time. We have allowed our daughter to handle them since they were purchased because they were for her pleasure. As a result, some of the pieces have suffered damage. If you intend on having the set intact you may want to deal with the pieces in a different manner.

I understand the idea of products being more valuable if they are left in their containers and only handled when absolutely necessary. I have a collection of baseball cards I put through this exact theory. But these ornaments were dear enough to my daughter that she lovingly touches each one before putting it on the tree each year when it comes time to add Christmas decorations to her tree. Denying her this pleasure is serving no one's interests.

 One day my little girl will become a mother and will want to share some of the things she marked the years of her shildhood with her children. This collection of aornaments is one of the things she will be able to point to as a fond memory of Chirstmases past. The christmas lights and decorations of past years will be great memroies for her and these American Girl ornaments will be one othe highlights.

Each child will have a fovirte thing they want to put on their tree. My son has a collection of hallmark pick uop trucks that go on his tree. My daughter also has a collection of barbie themed ornaments she places on her tree with her American Girl ornaments. It certainly makes for a unique christmas tree decor.

 The ornament collections may seem to have nothing in common, but I argue that they do. They have something in common that makes Christmas the magical time it is: kids. I don't care that our trees have no over riding theme. Memories are made of how the kids enjoy the holiday, not how right each tree looks.

The holiday needs a kid's touch to be the best it can be and my kids have laways delivered a wondorous time for us to enjoy. I do not look forward to the Christmas time when they move out and have families of their own.