Harry Potter and the Commemorative Ornaments

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at my house, given that we typically put our tree and other decorations up right after Thanksgiving. And yes, the Boy Who Lived has a place in my holiday decor.

Several years ago, after it was clear that Harry and friends would be a long term part of my personal and professional life, my mom began giving me Hallmark Harry Potter ornaments. Hallmark has been releasing these annually since 2000, and Mom has thus far managed to track down most on Ebay.  Harry-themed ornaments were not something I would ever have thought of getting for myself, but now that I have them, I love putting them up every Christmas.  When it became clear that they would all get lost in the eclectic jumble that is my family’s normal Christmas tree, I got them their own wrought-iron table-top version.  I thought I would devote this post to sharing a few favorites.

As a group, my favorite set is the collection of pewter ones, released in the early years of Pottermania.  As it obvious by the purple, booked-shaped boxes, these are inspired by the books rather than the movies.  The collection includes two Harrys (one playing quidditch, one buying a wand), Ron (with Scabbers), Hermione (with book and potion bottle), Dumbledore, Hedwig, Hagrid (with Norbert) and Fluffy.  I always try to hang the Trio together.

Also from this era is Hermione’s school trunk, complete with five tiny, charm-sized ornaments of things she was supposed to have brought to Hogwarts with her. In this, however, there is an error. Along with a potions bottle, wand, book (presumably Hogwarts, a History) and hourglass, the trunk includes a broom.  As astute readers know, there is no evidence Hermione ever owned her own broomstick, and she would not have been allowed one as a first year, anyway.  Eventually, of course, the book-inspired images gave way to the movies.  Almost all of the movie-inspired ornaments have some special feature— a wind-up mechanism that allows Harry and Draco to race each other to the Snitch, a gizmo where you can insert a light to make Ollivander’s wand shop or the Hogwarts express light up, or a button to press to hear a snatch of movie dialogue, such as this one:  Shebert lemons

I think, however, that sometimes simpler is better.  This is perhaps my favorite of the movie-inspired ones, with the use of clear plastic to portray Harry’s arm disappearing into the Invisibility Cloak.  It is also a genuinely “Christmas-y” scene, as Harry opens his first-ever Christmas presents with his first-ever friend Ron.

Other scenes don’t seem to have the same sense of holiday cheer, like this one of Harry and Voldemort’s Final Battle. Well, I suppose at least the green and red wand lights are seasonal.

And this one shows the Trio nearly perishing by FiendFyre.  Kinda grisly, when you think about it, though I like the light effect.

This is also one where the light-up effect on Harry’s cauldron works well, though I am puzzled as to why Snape’s complexion resembles that of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I’ll close with my new additions for this year.  First, is Harry and Ron’s dangerous game of wizard’s chess from Sorcerer’s Stone.  This includes not one, but four snatches of dialogue from the scene, all lines from Ron. The next two are the first to be added to my tree that are not manufactured by Hallmark.  Last summer at Misti-Con, I participated in the Owl Post craft exchange, and got these two lovely hand-crafted ornaments, one with my house Ravenclaw crest and filled with blue beads, and one a Platform 9 3/4 sign, which I proudly hung next to my light-up Hogwarts Express. Many thanks to the Owl Post witch-crafters!

Now, if only I could lay hands on a gilded and petrified garden gnome for a tree-topper…..

So, is Harry a part of anyone else’s holiday traditions?