Where is the Hallmark Ornament Museum…Hint, not in Missouri

Hallmark Corporate Offices are in Kansas City. Crown Center? Kansas City. The company is one of the anchors of Kansas City and Missouri business. They are well diversified too with Crayola and their own t.v channel. They are a roaring success. So why isn’t the Hallmark Keepsake ornament museum in Missouri?

Christmas is something that Hallmark has embraced wholly and it’s hard to get too far into the season without bumping in Hallmark without even trying.

The Christmas ornament campaign has been big business for Hallmark for decades. Collectors abound. There is a secondary market for the ornaments. That’s heady business when you have a product so sought after that there is a sub market. I haven’t researched it (I’m sure someone has) but there are probably Hallmark Keepsake ornaments (if not yearly collections) that are considered investments.

Hallmark Keepsake ornaments have become the Hummel figurines of American culture. “Precious Moments” you say? O.k. They are also a Missouri centered business in Carthage, and would be the only other contender, and a more 1 to 1 comparison to Hummel but, Hallmark ornaments also has incorporated Precious Moments into their ornament collection. Debate for a date closer to Christmas….

With such a wildly profitable business, why wouldn’t Hallmark have their Christmas ornament museum in Kansas City?....and where is it?

Dearborn, Michigan…..

The Hallmark ornament museum has been folded into the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.  The museum had the foresight to buy a collection from a Gold Crown store in Warsaw, Indiana whose owners were retiring. They have almost 7000 ornaments on display dating back to 1973…(!!!)

Could Hallmark unveil something similar, or even bigger and more comprehensive? I’d like to think so. They also have the prime location to house it at the Crown Center.

Until that happens, you’ll have to take your fandom and curiosity to the Detroit suburbs.