Animal Christmas Ornaments

Gorgeous! The artistic style fits those animals.

Lovely wooden animals!

That cloisonné goldfish is incredible!! What a perfect gift! I will have to look for it online, it gorgeous.

For the day after Christmas, this wraps up my wildlife tree. But I have . . . a second tree. (This also excludes the wildlife ornaments we have on the big family tree!)

These are figures made of plastic, resin, or a textured material.

Corn Snake (a gift, in honor of my corn snake at home, Milo)
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Canada Goose
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Armadillo
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Okapi
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Raccoon
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Polar Bear
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Black Bear
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Caribou
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White Tailed Deer
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Red Fox (I was wrong, I do have another canid - just not another species of canid. And this one is looking especially feline. )
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Fox have something feline in their facial expressions anyway.
I think the armadillo is an excellent idea for a ball, tree-banded armadillos can roll into balls and look like yours.

That armadillo is adorable and gorgeous!

I love your ornaments! That snake and armadillo are especially wonderful.

They are wonderful! I love the fox, armadillo, and polar bear!

The rolled armadillo is such a fun idea! I'm trying to think what else can roll into a properly round bauble shape : hedgehog and echidna, giant isopod and the right kind of woodlouse, trilobite...that's it? Things like snakes and millipedes can ball up, but they don't really achieve spheres

George wrote:

The rolled armadillo is such a fun idea! I'm trying to think what else can roll into a properly round bauble shape : hedgehog and echidna, giant isopod and the right kind of woodlouse, trilobite...that's it? Things like snakes and millipedes can ball up, but they don't really achieve spheres

Please don't forget pangolins.

Oh, how could I! That's definitely rolled round enough to count (and it looks so much like an artichoke )

Thanks everyone! I would love to find more ornaments made from naturally spherical creatures, a nautilus could be on that list as well (and probably other oceanic creatures whose names I don't know). The armadillo is one of my most favorite ornaments, a gift from my sister. When I shared a photo of me holding it on facebook, many people thought I'd gotten a "baby armadillo" for Christmas.

I leave my wildlife tree behind and move to my horse tree, which has many more ornaments, because more people make horse ornaments than any other animal, maybe. First up are the Breyer ornaments! (Forgive my wildly varying lighting, I am still learning how to make my set up work for me).

This first one is a custom made for me by a friend many, many years ago. We actually met the family at Breyerfest 1995 (Mego was the celebration horse), and have remained family friends since then. One of the daughters, who now lives in New Zealand, sent me a "12 Days of Christmas" gift to open one a day, which was incredibly clever and sweet, and the last one was this beautiful custom. We were probably in middle school at the time.
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As for mass-produced Breyer ornaments, there's always a yearly selection, but I typically only go for the Beautiful Breeds release (and that heavily dependent on what they look like in hand). I was late to the Beautiful Breeds series, and so have only a few and missed some of the early porcelain ones that I really hope to add someday.

Welsh Pony
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Appaloosa
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Fjord
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Belgian (a very light built one)
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This guy was not a beautiful breeds, he was just a single release called Bejeweled. He might be my favorite Breyer ornament I have, but he was almost impossible to hold and photograph at the same time. I really need a tripod, haha.
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And finally, my only stirrup ornament, because it's the only holiday horse I have! He and the stirrup were a gift many years ago. He's called Silent Knight, and while I would never tell the people who gifted him to me, he is one of my least favorite Breyer molds. But nevertheless a cherished collection addition.
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Beautiful breyer ornaments! I was just looking at several of these on ebay. But of course, that special custom is the best for me. :)

Beautiful, the Breyers must make very elegant ornaments! And I love the fluffy ones in the previous post!

Thanks guys! We're packing everything up this weekend, so now I am rushing to get photos, haha! I love the Trail of Painted Ponies series, but there are SO many and I tend to pick and choose only my most favorites because multiple are released every year. I tend to gravitate toward the realistic horses, but I do have a couple fantasy examples as well. They are not the most realistic models out there, but for ornaments, they really are quite nice! Ornaments in general just have a slightly different standard than other figures, so it is nice to find a line with this much creativity and unique horse figures. These are in fact usually miniature versions of large models released every year, and some early ones have life sized versions from the original art installation. I never buy the large ones, but I do love the minis!

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There are so many of these that are just fantastic!!! That mosaic and butterfly horse are my favorites.

I was not aware of the more realistic ones, especially like the Fjord and (of course) the Arab- might have to look for that one for my mom. Thanks for showing them, the Union Jack saddlepad and monarch ones are neat too!

I have a few Breyer ones, the 2003 Breeds one and some of the fantasy fillies as I recall, perhaps a few more. Maybe I can find some of them.

These artistic horses are so intricate and beautiful!

pipsxlch wrote:

I was not aware of the more realistic ones, especially like the Fjord and (of course) the Arab- might have to look for that one for my mom. Thanks for showing them, the Union Jack saddlepad and monarch ones are neat too!

To help with finding them, the fjord is called "Little Big Horse," the arabian is "Prince of the Wind," the one with the Union Jack is "Big Ben" and the monarch one is "Butterflies Run Free" (which is weird, since butterflies don't run at all).

Quote :

I have a few Breyer ones, the 2003 Breeds one and some of the fantasy fillies as I recall,  perhaps a few more. Maybe I can find some of them.

I'd love to see them! The arabian was before I started collecting them, and those old ones are very expensive these days.

Alright, everything has been put back in the garage, and so here's the last of the ornament parade! These are Hallmark's series "My Dream Horse" which started with a generic horse and then became specific breeds with each successive year. They are not as well made as the Breyer or Painted Ponies, but they are also a little more affordable, haha. I like them a lot because they feel like the kinds of ornaments I would take off the tree and play with as a kid (I obviously wasn't allowed to do that with the more fragile sorts!). There's also only one every year, so I can actually get them all.

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And even though they don't quite fit in with everything else, these are still on my tree, so I'll feature them here, too. Also a Hallmark series, these are definitely targeted at those of us who had the first generation as kids. They hit the nostalgia nail right on the head!

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And that's it until next year!

Gorgeous models! I like the appaloosa and gypsy ones.

I missed this post- like the little Arab, may have to seek it. I missed the ornament series too. I did get a few of the MLP ornaments for my daughter, though they may not have been the same- want to say they were Carlton cards, not Hallmarks. Those look just like figures!

These are put away now, but here's a few last ornaments.

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An in hand pic of the oranda ornament. Maybe Christmas ornaments will be cheaper on eBay, now that the holiday's over? I'd recommend this one if you like cloissone, and there were several listings.

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Another anglerfish.

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Claude the Christmas Candiru. I was watching River Monsters one day near Christmas, the candiru episode, when my husband walked in. He started fussing terribly after watching the show a few minutes, and hearing the stories. So i was inspired to make Claude to freak him out. It worked- and still does.

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What you can do with found and broken bits and pieces. I made this one out of broken bits found on the floors and in the bottoms of bins at stores. Even the ball was an eviscerated one from Walmart.

Great ornaments Kelly! That goldfish is especially mesmerizing... and I love the candiru.

Lovely way to round up the season with these beautiful ornaments!

Are the canada goose and the corn snake plastic? These ornament figures are really interesting