I am sorry to have to include the news on this site that my beloved Barbara, who was always the driving force behind this collection, passed away in April of 2021.

I felt that I could no longer collect these beautiful ornaments, and so I passed our collection on to the person to whom Barbara wanted to leave it. I will maintain this site, which includes ornaments through 2020, for as long as I can. I appreciate your interest, but I cannot answer your questions. Barbara was the only one who could have done that. Therefore, I can only direct you to either Danbury Mint, or the secondary market, to get answers to your questions.

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So who are these crazy people that are so dedicated to a collection of gold Christmas ornaments?

Well, they are Barb & Dave Ladner. Both born in Chicago, IL – Barb Hofmann in 1953 and Dave Ladner in 1958. They were literally from the opposite corners of the City – Barb from the far southeast side and Dave from the far northwest side.

They met at work in 1985, became close friends and finally, husband and wife in May, 1988. Barb started collecting the Danbury Mint Gold Christmas Ornament Collection in 1985. Christmas was Barb’s favorite season. Her father was passionate about this Holiday and Barb definitely inherited his passion. Dave became as enamored with these ornaments as Barb was. After a few years, and learning more about this Danbury Mint Gold Christmas Ornament Collection, Barb set out to find every ornament that they did not yet own and have been unwavering in collecting every new issue of both monthly and annual ornaments to this very day! Dave decided to create a website for collectors to view and learn more about these ornaments. The Danbury Mint was incredibly helpful and supportive and the site launched in the early 1990s.

Both Barb and Dave had hectic careers – professionally as well as pursuing personal interests besides just collecting the Danbury Mint Gold Christmas Ornaments. As lives, careers and other

interests (mostly musical) became more hectic, the maintenance of the website took a back seat but Dave and Barb were committed to getting back to it “someday”.

Then in 2012 Dave and Barb retired and in 2015 they relocated from Illinois to Tennessee. Now they could focus on updating the website but cyber-hackers had other plans and the Danbury ornament site along with other sites hosted by Dave and Barb were destroyed. It was time to start over and in January, 2017 that work began. In July, 2017 Dave and Barb launched www.LadnerGoldDanbury.com and here it is. It will continue to evolve and improve until this collection is passed on to Margie & Annabelle Hofmann (wife and daughter of Barb’s nephew Michael) when our time for collecting comes to an end.

Peace and Love!