Holiday Collection Highlight: JC Penney Disney Black Friday Snowglobes

2015 marks a sad year for some of us here in the United States. For the past fifteen years, there has been an annual tradition that fell on Black Friday at JC Penney stores nationwide. On that day, stores gave out free Disney mini snow globes. However, this year will be the collection’s last. To commemorate this, I wanted to take a look at the entire collection, which includes a snow globe that almost never was.

The JC Penney Disney Black Friday Snow Globe Collection (2000-2015)

Pre- Dated Years (2000, 2001)

The first two years of the promotion, multiple, non-dated snow globes were given out. In 2000, three snow globes, featuring Lucky from 101 Dalmatians, Tigger, and Winnie-the-Pooh/ Piglet, were given out. In 2001, Mickey and Minnie were featured in a duo of snow globes. Given out one per person, I was able to get them because I was shipping with my mother and brother. Back in the early 00’s, stores opened early morning on Black Friday, not midnight or, even crazier, on Thanksgiving.

 

 

Dated Mickeys (2002-2011)

From 2002 through 2011, Mickey was featured in a single snow globe design, which was also accompanied with a date either stamped or carved into the design. 2004’s design celebrated Mickey’s 75th birthday in addition to the holidays, while the rest of the years had a strict holiday theme.

 

 

 

 

 

2012: The Year Without a Mickey Snow Globe… Almost

Right before the holiday season of 2012, JC Penney announced the abrupt cancellation of the snow globe promotion in favor of a button giveaway. As you could probably guess, this infuriated the collectors of these snow globes, who were not just Disney collectors but also yearly, and loyal, customers of JC Penney. Calls were made, emails were sent, boycotts were called for, Facebook groups were made, and… yes.. even petitions were made to bring them back. I personally did not take part in these activities, but enough people did that the JC Penney executives retracted the policy. 2013 saw the return of the snow globe. Not only that, limited amounts of the 2012 snow globe were given out to JC Penney card members, as well as a mail away for some parts of the community. BuzzFeed has this pretty well documented rundown of the social media blitz, if you care to read more.

 

The Official (?) End to the Black Friday Snow Globes

2014 saw another release of the snow globe (probably one of my most favorite designs in the series). A few weeks before Black Friday of this year, it was announced that 2015 would be the last year for the snow globe, which something new and exciting planned for the future. Does that mean another Disney collectible? Who knows. It could easily be a flop like the 2012 button debacle, and we see the return of the snow globes yet again. However, since JC Penney announced it with the last release instead of a year after the last snow globe, a lot of people online here don’t necessarily have issues with the end of this wonderful collection.

 

Personally, this is not just a highlight of my Disney collection, but one of the gems of my Christmas decorations… something which people who know me know that it’s something I am heavily invested in. I only hope that the next JC Penney Black Friday collectible is Disney themed. I enjoyed hunting these down each year.

Do you have any of the JC Penney Disney Black Friday snow globes? Which one is your favorite? Let me know.