Our Picks for Hallmark Ornaments for 2023

Every year we pick a few Hallmark Ornaments to showcase that we think highlight the characters we follow or are a great connection to Saturday Morning of yesterday. And that is the reasoning we picked up our first ornament, which is actually last year's model! It's the Saved By the Bell Zack Morris. You'll hear Mark-Paul Gosselaar say a few of Zack's lines from the TV show. I hadn't noticed this was even released last year, so when I stumbled upon it this year, it was a must-have. Our favorite ornament this year is the Peanuts "Christmastime is Here". It plays the familiar "Christmastime" tune that immediately makes you think of the annual favorite "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It's also animated as Snoopy twirls Linus around while Charlie Brown pops out of the snow. This one is pretty expensive at $40, but it was worth it.

Our Star Trek pick of the year is Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Relics" featuring Captain Picard and Scotty. It features audio from the episode as the two captains-separated-by-a-generation discuss their first loves--the original series Enterprise and the Stargazer.

We usually pick up a few DC characters and we went with two from Gotham. The first is the light-up Batman '66 ornament featuring Batman and Robin. It also plays the nana, nana, nana, nana theme. The second is a younger Batman who 'swings and sways' from his bat rope (according to the packaging).

Our last ornament for the year is, of course, from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. A Target exclusive, this is actually six mini ornaments featuring Funko versions of Clark, Ellen, Eddie, the moose mug, Uncle Lews and Aunt Bethany. You don't see much merch with Lewis and Bethany so this was an immediate pickup for me. One of the most popular Christmas movies of all time (and one of my favorite movies ever), Christmas Vacation is ripe for mining of new ornaments. This brings to mind only one question: When do we get a Hallmark Keepsake ornament that rattles off the line "Shitter was full?"

And finally, a few words from Zack.