Like any special smurf releases, the Gold Cord Smurf Christmas Set is highly collectible and sought after by many collectors, including myself.
The Gold Cord Smurf Christmas Set is made up of twelve smurfs, with each one having their own unique reference number. I do not believe the set was never sold as a complete set, only as individual smurfs.
Each smurf has a metal loop attached to them upon where the gold cord is tied through. If you like to collect smurfs based on their markings, the Gold Cord Smurf Christmas set of smurfs all have the marking: Made in Portugal Schleich S Peyo (c) 1981. I do not think any of these included a mustard paint dot.
However it is possible to find any of these smurfs without a metal loop. It is also not unusual to find variances of where the metal loop is attached to the smurf. This is handy to know if you like to collect different marking variations.
Around the same time, some of the Christmas Smurfs were made out of Hong Kong. This is where you need to be careful as some of these are considered fake.
The complete set of the Gold Cord Christmas Smurfs include:
5.1901 Smurf with Christmas tree
5.1902 Smurf with present
5.1903 Papa Smurf with toy sack
5.1904 Smurf with toy sack
5.1905 Christmas Carols Smurf
5.1906 Christmas wreath
5.1907 Smurf riding candy cane
5.1908 Smurf with drum
5.1909 Christmas Carols Smurfette
5.1910 Praying Smurf
5.1911 Praying Smurfette
5.1912 Smurfette with candy cane
As these smurfs were released as a special set, it is unlikely you will see them in any Wallace Berrie catalogues. This was quite common for any special or seasonal releases by Wallace Berrie. Though by looking at collector’s websites it seems that they were sold in the USA between 1982 to 1985.
For some reason in the Maia & Borges catalogue from 1985 display the smurfs that make up the Gold Cord Christmas Smurfs though none of these shown in the catalogue have a metal loop attached to them. The other really odd thing is that Maia & Borges have given them their own reference numbers these include:
20801 Papa Smurf with toy sack
20802 Smurf with toy sack
20803 Smurf with Christmas tree
20804 Smurf with present
20805 Christmas wreath
20806 Christmas Carols Smurf
20807 Smurf riding candy cane
20808 Smurf with drum
20809 Christmas Carols Smurfette
20810 Smurfette with candy cane
20813 Praying Smurfette
20814 Praying Smurf
Maia & Borges also included some other Christmas themed smurfs and once again used their own reference numbers.
20811 Christmas Smurfette (Schleich ref# 20200)
20812 Christmas with Lantern (Schleich ref# 20201)
20815 Christmas Smurfette (Schleich ref# 20208)
So this year if you are looking for something smurfy to hang up on your Christmas tree or to decorate your house, why not try the Gold Cord Christmas Smurfs.
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B