Don Palmiter

Don Palmiter shares how he finally got around to featuring a model that had long evaded him in honor of the 20th anniversary of the All-American Truck series.

Don Palmiter was just 2 years old when his parents snapped a picture of him sitting proudly behind the wheel of his older brother’s pedal car.

“It was a 1948 Steel Craft Pontiac® station wagon. Burgundy with cream trim,” he says with the warmth and emotion usually relegated to describing an old flame. It’s a passion that has earned him the reputation around Hallmark and with ornament enthusiasts as “The Car Guy.”

Palmiter says growing up he loved art, but it wasn’t until his senior year of high school in 1967 that he knew he’d make art his career. At that time, Hallmark actively recruited seniors. One week after graduation, Palmiter was producing and embossing greeting cards. By the mid 1970s, he made the jump to sculpting.

Then, in 1987 Palmiter was thrilled to make the move to the Keepsake Ornament division. He quickly realized there were few men among the avid ornament enthusiasts. The reason? There was nothing masculine in the offering. Palmiter began to wonder what men would be enthusiastic enough about to start collecting. He needed to look no further than his own first love: cars.

Three years after presenting his idea, the American Classic Car Series was launched with tremendous success. Palmiter decided that he needed to pay homage to his first car, that 1948 Steel Craft Pontiac® station wagon pedal car. So in 1991, Kiddie Car Classics was launched.

“I travel to signing events all over the country,” Palmiter says. “People will show me pictures of the pedal cars they had as children and then have me sign that exact replica. They are thrilled that I have created an ornament from ‘their’ car. I can’t tell you how much I thoroughly enjoy that.”

1968 Ford Ranchero GT (2015)
20th in the All-American Truck series

Don Palmiter has spent many years studying, sculpting and perfecting the details in his hand-crafted trucks. This year marks the All-American Truck series’ 20th anniversary, and so Don selected a model that had evaded him in the past.

Don explains, “I work with an editor who is also a car lover, and we choose the trucks that we are going to do, but the Ranchero is not your typical pickup truck. It’s more of a modified station wagon pickup, but the pickups have a dedicated following. Ford quit making the Ranchero sometime around the ’70s, and so this ornament captures that part of truck history. I want the series to have a variety. I don’t want it all to be the same kind of pickup.”

Advertisements from the 1950s consistently place the Ranchero in a Southwestern setting, but they weren’t meant for heavy-duty use. “It’s not a rugged pickup truck. It’s more finessed,” Don says. “It’s more for a country gentleman, not a work truck.”

Don chose a color scheme to reflect the Ranchero’s breezy personality, completing the look with white sidewall tires—certainly not typical of your everyday pickup!

Christmas is such a magical time and Tracy Larsen’s 2014 ornament, Snow Fun Ferris Wheel, will add a unique touch of magic to any tree. Continue reading to learn a little more about Tracy’s inspiration.

Like most preschoolers, Tracy Larsen spent a lot of time with cartoons—but instead of just watching them, Tracy studied them! He spent his childhood hours drawing characters from The Flintstones™ and Peanuts®.

He also copied newspaper comic strips, but at the mature age of eight, Tracy moved to the more sophisticated material on the editorial page. The 1968 Nixon vs. Humphrey presidential race became a favorite subject.

While looking through newspapers and magazines, Tracy started noticing the differences among artists’ styles—another aspect of his self-described “knack for art.” He studied everything he found around his house, from European magazine illustrations to his own personal favorite of the day: Mad magazine.

Tracy did his first sculpting with clay-like kneaded erasers, but through his schooling, moved on to higher-quality materials and projects. He produced his first serious sculpture, a bust of Muhammad Ali, while he was still a teenager. During junior high and high school, Tracy kept honing his skills in his art classes, his primary instructor/mentor being the noted fantasy artist, James Christensen. What a great program those schools must have had, since Tracy is one of several classmates now working as professional artists.

Snow Fun Ferris Wheel (2014)
20th in the All-American Truck series

A favorite of his wife’s, the Ferris wheel is a must ride at any amusement park. Tracy believes “There is a magical, turn-of-the-century romance that surrounds Ferris wheels that I believe lends itself well to the nostalgia we feel at Christmas time, so it seemed like a good subject for an ornament.”

“In creating the ornament, I wanted to use a wintertime theme in both design and color. A snowflake motif for the wheel seemed like a natural fit with its six points to place carriages,” Tracy shared. Snowmen then became “the logical choice as patrons for this winter adventure. They look like they’re having fun as they circle around with the lights flashing and the wonderful calliope Christmas music playing. I especially like the little snowman vendor inviting us all to ride along.”

In trying to figure out how to bring the magic to life, Tracy and team decided to use a pull motor to activate the movement and sound. “Encasing the motor back by the wheel gears and making it part of the design,” was one of Tracy’s favorite elements.

Tracy hopes everyone will “Step right up, ” and enjoy this ornament as much as he enjoyed making it.