Love Christmas, but don’t appreciate either the religious meanings or the childish references of the usual decorations? Woe not, staunch skeptic, someone made a Christmas ornament just for you. Called the Heroes of Science, the alternative holiday decor lets you hang wooden engravings of your favorite scientists right next to shiny balls and colorful candy on the Christmas tree.
While billed as “non-denominational festive ornaments,” the images don’t really look all that festive. Other than that one with Carl Sagan’s big grin, every single portrait looks like it was a shot of the scientist after a week with no sleep, just as they found out that the assistant drank the last batch of coffee. Argh!
Each Heroes of Science ornament is made of wood, measuring roughly 3.75 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide. The etching is actually laser-engraved, so you can enjoy your holidays knowing no hands were permanently strained from needlepointing these detailed carvings.
A total of 20 famous men and women of science are available, including Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. It ships with 16 inches of satin ribbon, so you can hang it decoratively in your Christmas tree. The thing is, these could make for really awesome pendants and backpack charms, too, well after the holidays are over (try doing that with those Santa Claus decorations).
The Heroes of Science are available in packs of six (just choose which ones you want), priced at $30.  You can request the ribbon in either gold, red, or sage green, whichever your favorite holiday color happens to be.
[Etsy]