Christmas
Commemorative

The Glass Ball Is Where It All Began

In 1973, Hallmark introduced the very first Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments: six glass ball ornaments and twelve yarn figures. The glass ball — dated, decorated, collected — was the original format, the foundational form that made Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments a tradition rather than just a product line. Collectors who began buying dated Hallmark glass balls in 1973 were doing the same thing the Christmas Commemorative series began doing in 2013: buying the year's glass ball, setting it aside in its box, and returning it to the tree every December as a record of that specific year. One collector described it plainly on Hallmark's own website: "I have been collecting the Commemorative Hallmark Ball Glass Ornaments since 1979. Was saddened when they stopped putting them out for a couple of years and was glad when they were available again."

The Christmas Commemorative series launched in 2013 as a return to this most essential Hallmark Keepsake format: one glass ball per year, dated, a different color every time, ornately decorated with holiday imagery and the year's number. The 2013 #1 is red — the most classic Christmas color, the most traditional starting point. The 2014 #2 shifts to blue. From there the palette has ranged from gold (2016) to bronze (2017) to iridescent blue-green (2018) to pearlized ivory (2022) to citrus green (2024) to warm yellow (2025). Each year's color is chosen for its own quality as a glass shade — these are not simply "this year's color" as a marketing decision but genuinely considered selections that give each ball its own visual character while maintaining the series' coherence as a collection. Hung together on the tree, the thirteen balls create a palette that no individual year could produce alone.

One Ball Per Year — The Tree as a Calendar

The Christmas Commemorative series serves a purpose that most ornament series do not: it is explicitly a time-keeping device. Every glass ball is dated. Every glass ball is a different color. Every glass ball says, without any additional explanation: this was the year. A tree hung with the complete Christmas Commemorative collection from 2013 to 2025 is a tree hung with thirteen years — each year visually distinct (the color), each year explicitly marked (the date), each year recallable simply by touching the glass and reading the number. The ball that was on the tree in 2020 is different from the ball that was on the tree in 2021 in a way that immediately recalls both years separately. The ivory of 2022 is not the blue of 2021 or the citrus green of 2024. The colors remember the years even when the years themselves blur together.

This is the specific value of the annual dated glass ball as a format — the value that the original 1973 Hallmark glass balls had, the value that the Christmas Commemorative series restored in 2013. It is not primarily decorative, though the balls are beautiful. It is primarily commemorative, exactly as the name says: a record of years lived, each one a different color, each one in its box until December, when it comes out and the year it carries comes out with it.

Tips for the Collection

• 01
  Display all thirteen numbered balls together to make the full color palette visible. The Christmas Commemorative series' most remarkable quality — not visible until all thirteen are displayed together — is the palette they form as a group: red, blue, green, gold, bronze, iridescent, purple, red-bronze, blue, ivory, blown glass, citrus green, warm yellow. Hung together on adjacent branches, the thirteen balls create a color range that is simultaneously varied and cohesive, each one chosen carefully enough that no two years look alike and all thirteen look like they belong to the same collection.
• 02
  The 2022 Pearlized Ivory (#10) is the series' most understated and elegant entry. Where most of the series leans into vivid colors — the red of 2013, the gold of 2016, the iridescent blue-green of 2018 — the 2022 ivory ball is the collection's quietest entry, the one that reads as the most classically beautiful on a tree with other traditional ornaments. Display it prominently for those who prefer elegance over spectacle.
• 03
  The 2023 50th Anniversary Special Edition belongs beside the 2023 #11 annual ball. Both were released in the same year — the regular annual commemorative (#11, blown glass) and the 50th anniversary edition (shimmery red with gold cap). Together they form 2023's full Christmas Commemorative story: the year's ball and the milestone ball, the tradition continuing and the tradition celebrating itself simultaneously.
• 04
  The collection is the ideal annual gift for anyone who values a commemorative tradition. One new ball per year, dated, a different color — the simplest and most ancient form of Christmas ornament collecting. For anyone who wants a Christmas ornament that marks the year rather than depicting a character or licensed property, this is the series. One ball per December. The tree keeps the record.
• 05
  All 14 Christmas Commemorative entries — 13 numbered balls and the 50th Anniversary Special Edition — are at Already Christmas. The complete collection from 2013 through 2025, every color, every year, including the Special Edition that celebrates where glass ball collecting began.