Angels Around
the World
Six years. Six countries. Six angels dressed in the national costumes of Ireland, Germany, England, America, Mexico, and France — each one a portrait of how the world celebrates Christmas.
One Message, Six Languages
Peace. Hope. Goodwill. These are the qualities angels have embodied in the human imagination across cultures for thousands of years — and they are qualities that Christmas, at its best, asks us to carry out into the world. The Angels Around the World series took that universal message and gave it a beautiful, specific, globally-minded form: one angel per year, dressed in the traditional costume of a different country, celebrating Christmas in her own cultural language.
Launched in 2011 with Ireland, the series visited Germany, England, America, Mexico, and France before completing in 2016. Each year through 2016, a new ornament was released that honored a different country or culture and its interpretation of angels. Every piece features an angel in a richly detailed national dress — researched, sculpted, and finished with the attention to cultural specificity that makes the series feel genuinely educational as well as beautiful. These are not generic angels given different color schemes. They are portraits of a particular place and tradition.
The series was created entirely by Hallmark Keepsake Artist Katrina Bricker, who brought to each figure the same careful research and sculptural discipline she brings to everything she makes — finding authentic details in historical garments, national symbols, and cultural traditions, and distilling them into a four-and-a-half inch ornament that honors the country it represents.
"I love to create ornaments — the feel of the wax in my hands and the challenge of working with it until it looks the way I envisioned it in my head. My goal is to make it into something that will help someone make a good memory or put a smile on someone's face."
— Katrina Bricker, Hallmark Keepsake Artist
Ireland (2011) · Germany (2012) · England (2013)
Katrina Bricker — Sculptor of the Series
Katrina Bricker always knew that art was what she wanted to do. She credits her mother — an art teacher — with instilling her creative joy from the earliest age, though that intensity of focus did cause some trouble in school. She once got into trouble for spending an entire geography worksheet drawing in the margins instead of filling in states and capitals. That same teacher later gave her first public recognition — a prize for creating the best Thanksgiving bulletin board in school. The geography may have suffered, but the art was clearly going to be extraordinary.
She studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, graduating with a major in illustration and minor in advertising. It was an instructor there who first introduced her to Keepsake Ornaments, and the connection was immediate and lasting. Bricker has been sculpting for Hallmark's Keepsake Studio ever since — working primarily in wax, with the same trusted tools she has used for years, coaxing each figure into the shape she envisioned before she picked up a tool.
For the France angel, she found inspiration in historical garments from Nice, adding red, green, and gilded accents. The angel holds an iris — France's national flower — and her wings feature fleur-de-lis. That level of research and specificity runs through every ornament in the series. Each country's angel carries objects, wears details, and bears symbols that required genuine study of that nation's visual and cultural history. The result is a series that rewards close looking.
#6 — France (2016)
The series closed with perhaps its most elaborately researched piece — the French angel, inspired by historical garments from Nice with the colors of the French flag stitched in a heart shape on her apron. She holds an iris, France's national flower, and her wings are decorated with fleur-de-lis. Katrina Bricker added gilded accents throughout to reflect France's celebrated attention to architectural and decorative detail. As the final ornament in the series, it is a fitting tribute — beautiful, specific, and deeply considered.
Shop France — The Finale →A Tour of the World's Christmas Traditions
From the green hills of Ireland to the boulevards of Paris — each angel is dressed to honor the country she represents, carrying its symbols, wearing its colors, and embodying its particular version of Christmas grace.
Mexico #5 (2015) · France #6 (2016)
The Universal in the Particular
What makes Angels Around the World such a quietly powerful series is the idea at its core: that Christmas, in all its forms and across all its cultures, is ultimately about the same things. Peace. Generosity. Beauty. The hope that something good is coming. The angel — a figure that appears in Christmas tradition across nearly every culture on earth — is the perfect ambassador for that idea.
By rooting each ornament in the specific details of a particular country's dress, customs, and symbols, Katrina Bricker doesn't dilute the universal. She deepens it. The more specific an Irish clover or a French iris or a Mexican color palette, the more clearly it becomes apparent that all these different people, in all these different countries, are celebrating something essentially the same.
For collectors who travel, who have roots in multiple cultures, or who simply believe that Christmas is bigger than any one country's version of it, these six ornaments offer something rare: a series that honors difference and finds unity in it. Together, the six angels make a case for the world that Christmas — at its best — imagines is possible.
Decoration Tips
-
01Display at eye level where the dress detail is visible. Each angel's costume is the heart of the ornament. Hang them where a viewer can actually see the overlay on the German dress, the iris in the French angel's hand, the color blocking of the Mexican gown. These details are meant to be discovered.
-
02Group them as a globe-spanning display. All six together on adjacent branches — or on a small dedicated tabletop tree — create an ornament that is greater than any one piece. The diversity of color and costume across the six is striking when they're displayed together.
-
03Personal connections make perfect placements. Have Irish heritage? Put Ireland front and center. Spent a holiday in France? The French angel belongs on your tree. These ornaments are most meaningful when their specific cultural significance connects to a specific personal memory.
-
04Warm gold lighting brings out the gilded details. Several angels — particularly France and Germany — feature gold and gilded accents that glow beautifully under warm white or amber lights. Avoid cool blue-white strands which flatten the warm tones.
-
05A meaningful gift for travelers and world citizens. Match the country to the person — the France angel for a Francophile, Ireland for someone with Celtic roots, America for a patriot or expat. The cultural specificity makes this one of the most personalizable gift series Hallmark has produced.
Display Tips
-
01The complete set of six is achievable. This is a finished, bounded series — six ornaments over six years. All six are out there. Displaying them together tells the full global story Katrina Bricker set out to tell, from Ireland in 2011 to France in 2016.
-
02France is the crown jewel. As the final entry and the most elaborately researched piece — with its historical Nice garments, iris, fleur-de-lis wings, and French flag heart — the 2016 France angel tends to be the most sought-after piece in the series. Collectors who have it know it.
-
03Study the dress details. Each costume rewards sustained attention. The German overlay, the Mexican color blocking, the Irish greens, the American stars, the English Victorian silhouette, the French gilding — reading these details against each country's actual traditions is part of the collecting pleasure.
-
04Display in world geography order or by personal preference. Some collectors arrange geographically (Ireland to France, west to east roughly); others put their personal favorite country front and center and build outward. Both approaches work beautifully.
-
05Keep the original boxes. The packaging for each piece reflects the country it honors. In-box condition is the collector's standard and protects the fine sculptural and costume details of each angel through years of storage and display.
All 6 Angels — 2011 to 2016
Six countries. Six costumes. Six years of Katrina Bricker's finest work. Click any angel to shop.
Ireland. Germany. England. America. Mexico. France. Six different countries, six different dresses, six different ways of saying the same thing.
Peace. Hope. Joy. The language of angels is universal — and these six know exactly how to speak it.
✦ Part of our Series: Hallmark Keepsake Official Series, Explored ✦