I'm starting fresh again this year. There have been some significant changes in ornament shops this last year. Google is giving more exposure to stores that offer unique items but they're buried on page 2 or higher. Conversely, they've increased the visibility of some surprisingly poor shops. The changes have been caused by something called Panda. We're seeing national brands, where we used to see specialty stores, the same national brands you'd already be looking at if you wanted what they offered: Target, Martha Stewart, etc. I don't personally like the changes because it's made for a poorer user experience, having to hunt deeper and deeper for good stores amongst the not-so-good stores on pages 3 and 4 and more. Here's a great example of a bad result on page 1.  This store has horrible quality pictures, a poor selection, and exceptionally bad hand writing on their personalized ornaments: ornamentsbyoccasion.com. Here's another example of a poor result: a store with a known bad reputation: personalizationmall.com. Here's an example of a super well-known Christmas store that has very bad ornaments for tourists: bronners.com. So, that's 3 out of the 10 on page 1 for most major ornament search terms. As usual, I'll pick the real gems out, as well as the hard-to-find specialty shops, great deals, caring for ornaments issues, and more.  Happy Christmas decorating and shopping to you!

 

Find Unique Tree Ornaments

I'll be writing my articles freshly again this year on Christmas decorations for the home. This year, I'm going to concentrate on the different kinds of unique and personalized tree ornaments that one can find.

I've been researching glass ornaments, from the finest to the Made in China variety that can have people's names on them, dates, and special life events. There are tree ornaments for babies and kids, for sports and hobbies, and for the special people in our lives. I'll tell you where to find an assortment of each kind, and as we near in on November, I'll be searching the internet for the very best deals and coupons. I'll not be posting "Buy 5 ornaments and get free shipping", as I don't think that's an unusual deal. Similarly, if they say "Spend $100 for free shipping" that's another run-of-the-mill offer. I'll be looking for GREAT deals. Usually they go up on various websites right after Thanksgiving, but for now, here's one I've found that the owner confirmed is offered all year. Free Shipping Ornaments offers free shipping on just 2 ornaments or $28.00. That'll work, as there's an inventive to buy just one more ornament than the one you already need. Since it's an easy Christmas gift, I like it.

There will be more.

 

Caring for Christmas Tree Ornaments: Home Care & Insurance

In caring for Christmas ornaments, whether they were expensively purchased or inexpensively acquired, most of us consider all of our ornaments as precious. In short, they make up, in sum, a record of our lives, mementos of youth, of childhood passions and accomplishments, of grandparents and grandchildren. We'll discuss the care of Christmas ornaments in this article, and whether or not you should procure insurance for Christmas ornaments.

First, you have to consider the raw materials. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it does represent the primary building blocks for most ornaments: resin, glass, and multi-media. We will also discuss the option of carrying Christmas ornaments insurance on your most prized and valued ornaments.

Insuring Resin Ornaments

In this section, I'll first discuss what the difference between "resin" is and glass, how their care differs, and what part insurance should play in covering your valuable ornaments.

Almost everyone has seen the term "resin" in a product description, but few people know what it is. In short: it's a petroleum product, similar to plastic, but having different characteristics. Do not confuse this "resin" with another definition for the same word. "Resin" that is used in perfumes and other products can be both naturally derived from plant and tree sources, as well as synthetically produced. That resin is not "this" resin. The resin used in the manufacture of Christmas ornaments is more correctly called "polyresin" for Polymer resin. To manufacture polymer resin, one starts with petroleum and/or natural gas. This substances are extremely easy to mold, and are therefore used to quickly and easily make molded Christmas ornaments. The simplest ones have a flat backside which enables them to be quickly poured into a mold and popped back out. More...

 

Top Picks for 2011

I've got about 20 really good shops to talk about this year, but I always like to boil it down to 2 or 3 gems for those of us who just don't have the time or inclination to shop a bunch of different stores. So, if I could only go to two stores, these two would be my choices: Russell Rhodes' tree ornaments, and Kathleen's tree ornaments for kids. The first store is a long-established store with an unusually good reptuation for the quality of their personalization. They use calligraphers (who can also do just straight print -- the way you'd want it on a football ornament, for example), so every ornament looks professionally done. You can be proud to give a gift from them, and even better, their ornaments arrive in a velvet bag, so it has a very nice finishing touch. They do have some ornaments for younger people, but their strength is the high quality and very large selection for teens through adults. For kids, I recommend Kathleen's Kids Christmas Ornaments shop. It's like a candy store for Mom's who're buying for their kids. They have everything from Olivia, to Sesame Street, to race cars -- just tons of ornaments, all for only boys and girls. I love it, and it's a lot of fun to shop there.  If you're going for a completely hand crafted look, there are some wonderful kids ornaments at Calliope Designs Christmas Ornaments Personalized that are utterly darling.

 

Decorating from Large to Small -- It's All About Size and Placement

Later this week, I'm going to list where to find teeny, tiny balls for the very tip top of your tree that's so often left kind of bare, as well as where to find really large balls that won't break the bank, or BREAK! because the kids can get at them.