Do Ornaments Come With Hooks? (Surprising Answer)


Holiday ornaments are as traditional as the Christmas tree itself. From the home made ones kids put together at school to the ones specially selected at Christmas Stores, people love their ornaments and cherish them year after year. So it’s a natural question to wonder, ‘do ornaments come with hooks?’

Most Christmas and holiday ornaments do not actually come with hooks. From ornaments sold in bulk boxes at large retailers to the individual ones selected at Specialty Shops, ornaments rarely include hooks, so those need to be bought separately or can be made from common household items.

Since ornaments play a crucial role in our holiday decoration, it’s important to know how to hang them and what to do about hooks. After all, without hooks or some kind of ‘hook-device’, ornaments aren’t very usable. I particularly love Christmas and Christmas decorations, so I’ve looked into this question with high interest. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned, too!

Contents

Do You Need Hooks For Ornaments?

According to Statista, people say they spend about $63 on Christmas decorations each year! That’s up about $10 from 2015, despite economy concerns. Bulbs and ornaments are a big part of that $63 too, since it’s tradition for many to buy a new ‘year’ ornament. But most people ignore ornament hooks because it’s not part of the aesthetics to holiday decorating.

You need hooks for ornaments. Hooks make it possible to hang ornaments on trees, garland, and wreaths. Without hooks, ornaments can be placed on a shelf or table if the design shape has a flat bottom. But to be clear, you don’t have to use store-bought hooks; you can make your own if you prefer.

My first Christmas away from my parents’ house was eye-opening though, when it comes to ornaments and hooks. I learned the hard way that hooks like these from Amazon aren’t generally included with the ornaments!

After I carefully chose ornaments based on color, design, and price (considering I had very limited funds for decorating), I got home to a not-so-nice surprise. No hooks! This meant I couldn’t decorate the tree!

I had a nice box of ornaments- probably 12 because that seems to be the number in the bulk boxes back then, but no way to hang them on my tree. I honestly can’t remember now how I remedied the situation…probably drove to my mom’s to get her extra hooks, as she was usually part of my solution back then!

Nowadays, I know to check for hooks before leaving the store. There’s been an exception or two where hooks were included, but overwhelmingly it is the opposite. No hooks in the box!

On the occasion when I or one of the kids have selected a single ornament that year, it’s easy to see that no hook is included, too.

The simple solution to this problem is usually on the same aisle as the ornaments, or maybe one aisle over: a box of silvery wire hooks that are easy to attach to any bulb or ornament.

But do you really need hooks?

Well, it depends on the manufacturer and the design of a particular ornament. Some ornaments use a decorative yarn loop to hang, while others have a golden thread. These cloth-like ‘hooks’ can feasibly be used to hang the ornaments, but it’s not as pleasing to the eye as when you attach a hook.

From the manufacturer’s design perspective, it’s intended that the customer uses a hook even if a thread, yarn, or cloth-like ‘hook’ is on the ornament.

Later on, we’ll look at some popular options for hooks, as well as some non-conventional choices you can make in order to hang your ornaments, so keep reading to find out more.

You might also enjoy these articles about holidays:

Are Ornament Hooks Necessary?

Ornament hooks are necessary for the best design-look of ornaments. Though it’s sometimes possible to ‘hang’ ornaments without hooks by using the thread-like attachment that is on most ornaments, they don’t look as nice as when you use a hook in conjunction with that feature.

Ornament hooks hold your ornaments firmly in a fixed position and prevent it from unnecessarily falling off, thereby protecting your beloved ornaments from damage. Apart from that, they add a touch of elegance to your decoration by helping them to hang/droop properly.

Ornament hooks also can be useful for hanging Christmas lights, rope, beads, and other ‘non-ornament’ holiday decorations.

Since hooks are for the most part inexpensive and easy to come by, it’s not usually a problem to get hooks for ornaments. The problem happens if you forget to buy the hooks, lose the hooks, or run out of hooks. Then it’s necessary to come up with ‘alternatives to hooks.’

One new type of popular ornament hook is actually made from green plastic like these hooks from Amazon.

Alternatives to Ornament Hooks

Though hooks are vital for ornaments, you don’t necessarily have to purchase them or use store-bought hooks. It’s entirely possible and quite easy to make your own. In fact, you can make this part of your holiday tradition.

For one, you can use paper clips. This is probably one of the most common ‘home made’ hooks used. Certainly teachers have found it practical (and safe) for kids to use paper clips attached to their hand-crafted ornaments each year. Simply fold the paper clip and it becomes a very usable hook!

Alternatively, another option you can use are tree clips like these from Amazon in place of hooks. Most people use tree clips to secure Christmas lights to tree branches, especially live trees you don’t want to damage when you remove the lights or when you use LED light, and you don’t want to damage the lights when you take them down.

You merely give them a little twist and secure hold with the tree clips. Tree clips give you an option of using wire ties, which are generally hard to remove, often requiring clippers that dig into the tree and cut light wires.

Here are some other things you can use as ‘hooks’ for ornaments:

  • String/Yarn
  • Wire or twine
  • Bread Ties
  • Ribbon
  • Earring hooks or other jewelry hooks
  • Dental floss
  • Bobby pins or other kinds of hair accessories like elastics
  • Hooks from old or broken ornaments

Do Hallmark Ornaments Come With Hooks?

The Hallmark brand is a reputable brand known for selling quality ornament and ornament hooks amongst other products like greeting cards and gifts. Hallmark first produced ornaments in 1973, and they have continued to manufacture these ornaments with approximately 400 different designs in each recent year. 

Hallmark ornaments, like most holiday ornaments, do not come with hooks. It is necessary to buy hooks separately for Hallmark ornaments. However, Hallmark ornaments do generally have a thread/yarn attachment, which could feasibly allow their ornaments to hang without a hook.

Hallmark releases several new ornaments every year. For instance, there’s commonly a new Holiday Barbie Ornament like this one, which they sell in their stores as well as at Amazon. As well, they’ll release Keepsake ornaments yearly for collectors.

Many people look forward to the annual Hallmark Keepsake Ornament, which doesn’t usually come with a hook by the way.

At first, I believed all Hallmark ornaments come with hooks given their specialty design and attention to detail reputation. But then I found out that the Hallmark brand also sell hooks separately. This made me second guess my initial assumption. There’s no sense in selling ornaments with hooks and still selling hooks as a different product entirely, right?

After some research, I discovered that Hallmark ornaments don’t come with hooks. I believe it may be possible to find a few exceptions, but it’s clear, that it’s not usual to find them with hooks included.

So know that once you’ve selected your ornament, you’ll still need to purchase the ornament’s hook from them or elsewhere. Or as explained above, make your own.  

To be honest, it makes sense for Hallmark to do this. For one, it’s what is usual for the market. Almost all ornaments are sold without hooks. And since hooks are pretty cheap, most peoplee don’t mind expect for the bit of hassle or inconvenience of an additional purchase.

Think about it like this: Hallmark’s strategy of ornaments and ornament hooks is similar to purchasing PS3s. PS3 doesn’t come with a controller; you have to get that separately. The same is with buying a computer. You buy the monitor, then the keyboard and so on. This is standard. Oh sure you can buy ‘bundles’ with everything, but don’t be fooled. You’re paying for it piece by piece and often a bit more because they put it together for you!

So just keep this in mind the next time you go to purchase your Hallmark ornament. Make sure to include the hook for it!

Some people regularly look forward to the new Hallmark ornaments which are released in July.

Wrapping Up Ornaments With Hooks

To wrap it up, keep in mind that ornaments traditionally don’t include hooks.

You need to either purchase hooks separately when you buy your ornaments, or account for making your own (or reusing old hooks) when you are ready to hang them on your Christmas tree, wreath, or holiday garland.

The good news is that hooks aren’t expensive and aren’t really hard to make if you so choose. But it’s sure a hassle to not know in advance that your ornaments don’t come with them. And companies don’t really advertise this either, but now you know!

For further reading about holidays, I suggest:

Source Hallmark.com

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