



No matter how many times I tell myself I'm not buying anymore Topps Holiday, I always end up buying Topps Holiday. Its a gimmick to get us to spend more money on baseball cards that we probably already own, one way or another. Hot Wheels does the snowflake variation on blister cards to get more sales, so why shouldn't Topps.





This year's Holiday feels more festive. The 2019 Topps design looks stunning with those bright green & red borders complimented by the snowflakes on the opposite side. The first time I saw scans of these, I didn't like them. It's not until you hold them in your hand that you realize how great they look.





The biggest selling factor for Holiday to me is not the color or the snowflakes, but the fact that you usually get all the best rookies from the year all available in one product. With pretty good odds of pulling them.





The 1 in 2 pack metallic snowflake parallels make their return, although they are not very photogenic.





The 1 per blaster relic cards are duds. Well, if I had pulled a Dodger I would be singing their praises more than likely. Kepler and Chapman? Not guys I collect at all. Not guys that I know of anyone else collecting either.





Here's my first in hand SP Variation. The Tanaka up top is the base card, nothing special. But the one on bottom is a 1:7 base SP Variation with a Christmas streamer running across the background.





Another base SP variation. Perhaps if Altuve had busted out his Candy Cane Bat in the World Series, Houston would be Champs right now.





And this one is a rare SSP variation. Notice the Christmas ornaments over the wall?





While the photoshopping on these may be cheesy, they sure are fun to unearth in packs. My 7 year old, who loves anything Christmas, absolutely loves these cards. We can complain about Topps milking all they can out of these designs every year, but if they catch many kids' eyes like they did mine, these could end up bringing a new generation of youngsters into the collecting world.





At the end of the day, weren't baseball cards intended to make kids happy?