No Joke - Hallmark unveils 2021 Muppet Ornaments!

It may be April Fool's Day, but Hallmark unveiled their 2021 lineup of ornaments including two new Sesame Street ornaments and a new Muppet ornament as well.

Sadly, 2021 seems to be rerun/ reboot year for their Muppet offerings. Hallmark only acquired the Sesame Street license in 2019 and has already released three different Cookie Monster and Elmo ornaments. 

This year will bring that total to four each. 

"Elmo's Magic Piano" will play the Elmo's World theme song and will be released in October.

While Cookie Monster wearing a Santa hat and carrying cookie presents will be available in June. 

I know Elmo and Cookie Monster sell very well, but I'm sure Bert & Ernie, The Count, Oscar, or any of the MANY MANY other Sesame characters could be big sellers as well. 

Their 2021 Muppet ornament isn't much better.

Kermit and Miss Pigg are both big sellers for Hallmark, so it makes sense to combine their drawing power. Though this in now the third year in row Hallmark released a Kermit ornament.  

Also, if "Kermit's Holiday Hug" above looks familiar though, it's because the Disney Store released a very similar ornament in 2010.

Kermit & Miss Piggy
(Disney Store)
2010

We're going to chalk this up to a reboot and like most reboots there's good and bad. While Miss Piggy looks better in the Hallmark version, Kermit looks worse. His expression is almost blank compared to the Disney version and he's so small he looks like a doll.  

The Disney version was also flocked and had a glittery snow mound as a base. This was helpful if you wanted to use it as a decoration, instead of an ornament. The Hallmark version doesn't look stable enough to stand on its own, and looks like it can only be used as an ornament. 

"Kermit's Holiday Hug" will be available in June. 

If anyone from Hallmark is reading this, I hope 2022 and beyond brings more character 

variety. Our trees and holiday decorations deserve more then just Elmo, Cookie monster, and Kermit variations and that's no joke. 

Thanks to John Papovitch for the heads up.