I wanted Ornaments to be charming and somewhat old-fashioned, with plenty of visual gags and a happy ending. I was also aiming for visual and physical realism, with a few hints of stylization here and there. Apart from a few seconds of radio announcer chatter, there's no speech in the story, so it should cross language barriers just fine.

The story is split into five sequences: introduction, tree, train, piano, and airplane. The ornament gradually gets in over his head through the first four sequences, and finally reaches his goal in the last. Throughout, he uses props as tools to reach what he's after.

The music is half of the story in Ornaments, and I spent a lot of time choosing songs that were familiar and fit the pace of the action. Before storyboarding each sequence, I chose an appropriate piece of music. I listened to each song over and over, visualizing the action until I was ready to put it down on paper. I gradually edited the action and the music until the two matched up.

At certain points I had to compromise the cinematography to suit the songs, but the overall effect is that the music reinforces the action and vice-versa. During editing, I kept the sound effects to a minimum for the sake of the music.

The original script called for some fun action after the Santa ornament reaches the cookies, but I wanted to finish the animation before Christmas of 2000, so I cut it short. Maybe if I have time some day, I'll finish the story and re-release it as Ornaments 2.0 :)