(via Shutterstock)
When I bought my first Christmas tree as an adult way back in 1992, I bought some pop culture ornaments but I mostly stuck to the sorts of ornaments and baubles I remembered from childhood.
But as time went on, I increasingly bought more and more pop culture ornaments which, to my delight and surprise, were produced in great quantities and not just by the likes of Hallmark. Disney and others were also big on getting their characters onto peoples’ trees and while, yes, I know it’s just merchandising, I love the fact that the characters I love from books, TV, movies, cartoons and comic strips has fill my tree with the happiness they have often brought me.
Christmas trees should reflect who you are and what you love, and filling my trees – yes, trees; there’s at least two now – with pop culture favourites makes a time of the year I love even more special, especially with Peanuts marking its 75th anniversary this year and Winnie the Pooh his 100th.
Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol has been adapted over and over again and by some very illustrious actors of their day, but for my money, and a considerable amount is spent on Christmas-related items so I know of what I speak, The Muppet Christmas Carol is the version I return to again and again. It’s not simply because it features many of the Muppets I love, but because this take on the classic tale of redemption and new beginnings, produced and directed by Jim Henson and released in 1992, has so much obvious joy, love, musical richness and tremendous heart to it. You feel very pulse of the story and while some people would discount the impact because it’s largely acted by Muppets, the truth is that, whimsical, quirky and cute though it is, it really hits home and makes you realise why Christmas really matters. (Disney Sketchbook Ornament)
Up (Carl, Russell and Dug)
I can’t overstate how much I love this movie. Released in 2009, Up hits the heart from the word go, with the opening sequence of Carl (voiced by the late Ed Asner) falling in love with his wife Ellie tearing your heart in all the best ways before an older, grumpy, embittered Carl finds his heart brought wonderfully back to life by a young Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai) and a goofily friendly dog named Dug (Doug Peterson) on a wildly unconventional adventure to Paradise Falls in South America. It has everything we all in a Pixar movie – raw, broken, affecting humanity, offbeat, sweetly charming humour and characters you want to root for, hoping they will get the happy ever after they so richly deserve. (Disney Sketchbook Ornament)
Animal Crackers (Lyle Lion)
I read a lot of comic strips as a kid, and truth be told still read a lot of them now including old favourites like Peanuts, Mutts and Get Fuzzy, and of the highlights for me was Animal Crackers, which started in 1967 with Roger Bollen (until 1994) before he handed over to Fred Wagner (until 2016) and which is now drawn and written by Mike Osbun. It features whimsically funny crackers like Lyle the Lion, his best friend Dodo (the last one left alive), Eugene the elephant, Gnu and book lover Lana for whom Lyle carries a fairly obvious flame. It was even made into a 1997 Canadian animated TV series and finding this ornament was a real delight since it was the last comic strip I expected to have any Christmas ornaments produced for it.
Elio (Elio Sorlis and Glordon)
I LOVE animated movies. While they are seen as an artform solely for kids, the truth is they often carry a lot of emotional weight and real meaning with narratives that pack a punch and nowhere is this better illustrated this year than in Elio which takes its protagonist on an unexpected intergalactic adventure as a way of showing what really matters to him right back on Earth. It may not be the strongest of Pixar’s efforts but it’s still an imaginative joy to watch, reminding you that even in the darkest places of grief, there is hope, life and a way forward. If you have ever lost someone you love, and who of us haven’t, Elio will speak volumes to you and entertain you joyously along the way. (Disney Sketchbook Ornament)
Cathy (comic strip by Cathy Guisewite)
Another comic strip – see, I told you I read a lot of them! – and this one is one that really captured my attention and heart back in the ’80s and ’90s. Running from 1976 to 2010, Cathy by Cathy Guisewite follows, notes Wikipedia, “Cathy, a woman who struggles through the “four basic guilt groups” of life: food, love, family, and work.” It’s funny and relatable, but even for all that, it somehow slipped off my radar as I went further into adulthood, and it wasn’t until this year that I rediscovered Cathy, snapping up collections of her comic strips, a doll and, quite obviously Christmas ornaments. It’s so good to have Cathy back on my comic strip radar, and it proves that things you loved in your youth can very much still be a part of your older age and still be as relevant and delight inducing as ever.
It’s the 100th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh and I have made a point of putting almost all my ornaments of Winnie etc up on the tree. That of course means that Piglet, Winnie the Pooh’s best friend, who made his first appearance in 2026’s Winnie the Pooh book, appearing, says Wikipedia in chapter three, though he is there in illustrated form in chapter two. He might be a “Very Small Animal” and very timid into the bargain but he can also be very brave and it’s his sharpness and intuition that often saves Winnie the Pooh. He is a delight and a joy whenever he’s on the page, and of course, on the screen, it’s hard not to keep buying Piglet ornaments because he just makes your heart glad.
The Aristocats (J. Thomas O’Malley and Duchess)
Thanks to The Wonderful World of Disney growing up, which took place in an era without videos or streaming, I was able to watch all kinds of Disney animated and live action classics. One of my great favourites was the snappily, cleverly named The Aristocats, which released in 1970 and which tells the story of Duchess (Eva Gabor) who, along her rambunctiously playful kittens, survives an attempt by nasty butler Edgar (who serves Duchess’s owner Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, voiced by Hermione Baddeley) to do away with them by dropping them off in the countryside. He thinks they will perish and he will inherit Madame’s full fortune, not the cats, but fate has other ideas in the form of feral cat J. Thomas O’Malley who not only saves Duchess and the kittens, but who wins her heart too. It’s a sweet love story, perfect for any time of the year, but especially at Christmas. (Grolier ornament)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Peanuts)
It’s no secret if you read this blog that I LOVE Peanuts, and like so many others, that means I also adore A Charlie Brown Christmas, which released in 1965, the year of my birth. Featuring pretty much the whole gang from the classic comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, a gangly Christmas tree in need of love and acceptance and some classic music and songs by Vince Guaraldi including “Christmastime is Here”. It also importantly, and this meant a lot to me growing up when I was incessantly bullied and always made to feel less-than, conveys the message that we all matter, no matter who we are and that at Christmas we need to celebrate everyone, not just the pretty and popular people. This simply, gentle, emotional nuanced special has always touched my heart but never more so than this year when I am once again realising how much we need to value everyone all the time. (Hallmark ornament)
I watched a lot of TV growing up and that included lots and lots of sitcoms. While we only had one commercial TV channel – yes, just the one! My streaming loving nephew can’t believe that ever was the case haha – we did get a fairly good smattering of classic sitcoms; among them was Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984 and which gifted us 255 half-hour episodes full of life in the 1950s, and specifically in the household of the Cunningham Family, which includes Richie (Ron Howard). It was light, bright but strong on themes of friendship, community and family, and at a time when everyone watched roughly the same things at the same time, it meant that characters like Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and his catchphrases quickly became part of the popular lexicon. (Carlton Cards ornament)
The local library in Alstonville, the small town on the New South Wales far north coast where I mostly grew up, carried a wonderful range of books, including lots of Scandinavian literature, and the books of “a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) who who appeared in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children.” (Wikipedia). After the first book was published in 1918, she was joined by her brother in 1920’s Raggedy Andy Stories”. I remember the books and movies and TV shows, all of them part of the rich tapestry of a reading-rich childhood, which not only bolstered an already fecund imagination but made the writer I ma today.