Frosty Friends 2003 - 2008

Let's finish off the Frosty Friend's posts. Relax after a hard day returning gifts of hitting the day after Christmas sales.

2003 was one of the more complicated and larger of the ornaments.
2004 was another large one.



In 2006, the little guys were making 'smores.
And in 2007, they were making ice cream.
The current year ornament we display on the mantle place.
Since we have so many of these, a couple of years ago we bought a small tree to display them.

Frosty Friends 2000 - 2002

The Walk family Christmas tree. Hopefully, reading my blog isn't the best thing you have to do today.

Frosty Friends 1995 - 1999

Frosty Friends 1992 - 1994

Frosty Friends 1989 - 1991

Frosty Friends 1986 - 1988

These next three ornaments continue a simpler theme, Eskimo and his Frosty Friends hanging out on a block of ice. Some of these are hard to photograph. In 1986, Eskimo cooperated but Raindeer wouldn't look at the camera.Pup Seal pokes through the ice.
I'm not sure why, but this is another of my favorites. Maybe the whole Santa Claus lives at the North Pole thing from my childhood.

Frosty Friends 1983 - 1985

This is the 1983 Frosty Friends Hallmark ornament. All of these are dated. On this one, the year is on the top surface of the ice block, near the edge. A new friend, Seal, is introduced. As I mentioned before, it is amazing how well balanced these are.
1984 features Eskimo ice fishing and on a block of ice like last year. And another new friend, Penguin. Penguin, Bear, and Husky are the Friends who appear the most in the series. Eskimo always appears. Our first son was born in 1984, so this on is special.
For 1985 Eskimo and Husky appear in a red kayak. This is one of the smallest of the set. Our daughter was born in 1985, so this one is also special.

In the first post I mentioned that we have all the packaging for these. I'm not going to bore you when showing you the packaging but its interesting (to me anyway), how the packaging has changed over the years. The earlier ones came in a box which consisted of a cardboard base, a molded insert to the base and a clear plastic box which fits into the base. Some years, they've come in cardboard boxes with only a picture to guide you. The ornament would be usually wrapped in bubble wrap. Most years however, they are packaged so you can see the ornament through the package, usually in a plastic molded piece into which the ornament fits.

Frosty Friends 1980 - 1982

Sometimes you fall into a collection of something by accident. My wife and I got married in May 1980. In December we started to purchase Christmas ornaments. I had several boxes of stuff from my parents but we wanted our own stuff as well. We found this little ornament from Hallmark.
It was perfect. 1980 was our first Christmas and this was a dated ornament. What we didn't realize was that this was going to be the first of a series called Frosty Friends, a series which continues to today. The new Hallmark ornaments start showing up in the Hallmark stores in August and we always make sure we get the new Frosty Friends then. Some years these have been hard to find and we'd hate to have a gap in the series. A few years ago we bought a small artificial tree just for these. The 1980 ornament has become a collector's item. There are a number on eBay right now, some as high as $300. The key to this particular ornament is the little songbooks. Ours still has the originals, which makes it more valuable. You can get replacement song books for about $20 on eBay. The ornament is about 4 inches high.
In 1981, we were surprised to see another Frosty Friends. The Eskimo has a new friend, a husky dog. No polar bear this year. The ornament is about the same size as before. The little figures are always the same size every year. These are going on eBay for maybe $75 to $100. This one is not as condition sensitive as the 1980 as everything on it is plastic. By the way, we still have all the original boxes and packing material. We weren't thinking about long term value, it just made sense to us to repack them in the original boxes. But apparently this is important to the value of them.
1982 again features Eskimo and Husky. One thing we like about the series is the wide variation in design from year to year. This ornament is a bit longer then the first two. It is also balanced well so it hangs perfectly. I'll feature the rest of these as the season progresses.