At Hallmark, Get Halloween Ornaments For Your Halloween Tree

Here at Consumerist, we pretend to hate holiday mashups while secretly loving them. Still, we have to admit that we were a little confused when we saw that Hallmark now has Halloween ornaments. Yes, it’s a long-established fact that the gift chain puts its Christmas ornament collection out during the summer, but we thought they were just that. Christmas tree ornaments. Not so.

Here’s the rather blurry photo that tipster Beth sent us of the display at her local Hallmark store. The ornament label is hard to read, but the one with the pumpkin is called “Happy Halloween.”

That raises many questions. “Is this a Halloween-themed ornament for Christmas, or a Christmas-style ornament for Halloween?” Beth asked. We were confused, too, so we took her question to Hallmark.

A Hallmark spokesperson explained that the ornaments are “intended for Halloween decorating.” Wait, Halloween trees are a thing other than at Hobby Lobby? Yes. Yes, they are. Hallmark sells Halloween ornaments, which make sense when you see them in context with the rest of the collection. Maybe not so much when they’re stuck in a display among Christmas ornaments.

Their spokesperson explained:

Halloween is second to Christmas in holiday decorating, so we hear a lot from our consumers that they want this type of product. Some people like to decorate with “Halloween trees.” There may be some consumers who carry the Halloween ornaments over to Christmas, but the intent is for celebrating Halloween. Of course, people can use the ornaments however they’d like, and people do tend to get creative!

Well, we can’t disagree with that. People are entitled to use ornaments however they like. The pumpkin ornament makes sense in this context, and is adorable either way. That doesn’t mean I’m putting up a Halloween tree, though.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist