10 of the Most Valuable Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments

Founded in Missouri in 1910, greetings card company Hallmark first began producing its collectable Christmas ornaments, better known as its Keepsake Ornaments, way back in 1973.

The original 1973 collection consisted of six glass baubles, featuring a variety of Christmas scenes and mottoes, and a further 12 yarn-made ornaments depicting a set of suitably festive characters, including an angel, a snowman, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and a set of traditional carol singers. Over the more than 50 years since this first collection was introduced, the number of new ornaments Hallmark releases each year has grown enormously, so that today more than 400 are added to the collection every year. 

As any collector will doubtless tell you, each new set of ornaments is limited, dated, and made available only for a year. So, as a result, some of the ornaments in this now enormous collection are far rarer than others, and are therefore more prized by Hallmark collectors, and considered more valuable—10 of which are listed here, along with their approximate sale values online. 

1. Mrs. Claus Cupboard (1994): $100-150
2. Ring in the Season #6 (2020): $100-200
3. Up on the Housetop (2015): $200-300
4. Sweet Snowmouse (2011): $300-400
5. Holiday Wildlife #1 – Cardinals (1982): $100-400
6. Frosty Friends #1 – Cool Yule (1980): $500-700
7. Scarlet Tanager (2011): $700-800
8. Mary Engelbreit Santa (1992): $700-900
9. Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With The Wind (2020): $1,800-2,000
10. Christmas at Kirlin’s (2013): $2,200+

Mrs. Claus Cupboard (1994): $100-150

This complex Keepsake ornament was made to celebrate the collecting of ornaments itself when it was produced in 1994. Consisting of a miniature festive dresser topped with evergreen branches, the shelves of the Mrs. Claus Cupboard are stocked with ten smaller individual ornaments. To add this one to your collection, you can expect to pay over $100 online today. 

Ring in the Season #6 (2020): $100-200

Hallmark’s Ring in the Season collection of tinkling Christmas sleighbells began in 2015, and has been expanded every year since. Among the most valuable in this long-running collection is the 2020 entry—embossed with the year and a picture of a horse-drawn sleigh—which fetches up to $200 online. 

Up on the Housetop (2015): $200-300

Up on the Housetop was a complex battery-operated Keepsake ornament released by Hallmark in 2015, depicting Santa in his sleigh atop a small house with a snow-covered roof, shuttered windows, and a wreath on the wall.

When a button was pressed, the reindeer on the roof cantered up and down, the front windows would open to show Santa leaving presents beneath the tree inside, and the entire ornament would light up and play music and festive sound effects. To add this intricate ornament to your collection today, you can expect to pay anywhere between $200 and $300 online. 

Sweet Snowmouse (2011): $300-400

Hallmark’s Cookie Cutter Christmas series comprises a set of Keepsake Ornament shaped like cookie-cutters, inside of which is depicted a mouse enjoying or making preparations for the festive season. Before the series was introduced properly in 2012, a special event piece was produced in small numbers the previous year titled Sweet Snowmouse, depicting a mouse in a hat and coat building a snowman against a wintry background.

The most valuable entry in the entire series, Sweet Snowmouse is regularly priced from $300 to over $350 online. 

You May Also Like:

Add Mental Floss as a preferred news source!

Holiday Wildlife #1 – Cardinals (1982): $100-400

Cardinals was the title of the very first ornament in Hallmark’s 1980s Holiday Wildlife Keepsake series, which ran from 1982 to 1988. The ornaments in this series depicted various species of birds, including snow geese, purple finches, and cedar waxwings, set in a wintry scene and surrounded by a circular wooden frame.

Some of the cheaper ornaments in this collection only retail for a few dollars today, but depending on the quality, you can expect the first in the series to go for anything from $100 to upwards of $400. 

Frosty Friends #1 – Cool Yule (1980): $500-700

The longest-running of all Hallmark’s Keepsake Ornament series is the Frosty Friends series, which features a character named Frosty the Eskimo, alongside an array of animal friends, in various situations and performing various activities at the North Pole. The first ornament in the series, 1980’s Cool Yule, is the rarest and most sought after. Depicting Frosty singing carols with a polar bear cub, it can fetch anywhere from $500 to over $700 online.  

Scarlet Tanager (2011): $700-800

Made available in very limited numbers back in 2011, the Scarlet Tanager was the seventh ornament in Hallmark’s long-running Beauty of Birds series, which it introduced in 2005. Some of the rarest and most valuable Keepsake Ornaments of all are found in this series, but the Scarlet Tanager is the most sought-after and typically goes for over $700 online.

Mary Engelbreit Santa (1992): $700-900

Artist Mary Engelbreit has collaborated with Hallmark several times over the decade, but the prized piece among collectors is a tin Santa ornament released and then all but recalled in 1992. As a result, perhaps barely two dozen of their ornaments have ever found their way into the hands of collectors; if you wanted to add this one to your collection today, you can expect to pay anywhere from $700 to nearly $900.

Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With The Wind (2020): $1,800-2,000

Not long before its due release date, Hallmark pulled a 2020 Keepsake ornament of Scarlett O’Hara from stores and requested any retailers who had already received their stock to return them. A handful slipped through the net, however, and as such, this has become one of the rarest and therefore most sought-after ornaments in the entire Keepsake collection. If you want to track it down online, you can expect to pay upwards of $2,000.

Christmas at Kirlin’s (2013): $2,200+

Hallmark began its popular Christmas Window series of Keepsake Ornaments in 2003. Each one depicts a child looking through the window of a different store—but in 2013, a set of less than 100 ornaments in this series titled Christmas at Kirlin’s was produced, and made available only to Kirlin’s gift store managers and employees to celebrate the company’s 65th anniversary. As a result, this intricate ornament is one of the rarest of all Keepsake Ornaments, priced over $2,000 online.