Rep. Rafael Anch\u00eda, D-Dallas, has one on his tree for each year he\u2019s served in the Legislature, where he was first sworn in a few weeks after Christmas in January 2005. Each season, he buys roughly 30 more to give away, a tradition he says transcends party labels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are amazing. It\u2019s the ideal Christmas gift,\u201d he said, making his best holiday sales pitch. \u201cA surefire way to please constituents and mothers-in-laws across the political spectrum.\u201d <\/p>\n
Political Points<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Nelda Laney, wife of then-House Speaker Pete Laney, launched the ornament tradition in 1996 with designs created by the Texas State Preservation Board, the steward of the Capitol and other historic state buildings.<\/p>\n Now, the board\u2019s retail team spends at least two-thirds of the year overseeing the annual design, according to the Texas Capitol Gift Shop website. The board runs three shops: one in the underground Capitol extension, one in the Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History and one in the Capitol Visitors\u2019 Center on the south side of the grounds. <\/p>\n The 2025 Texas State Capitol Christmas ornament features a design that’s a throwback to the original design from 1996.<\/p>\n Texas State Capitol Gift Shop<\/p>\n Over the years, the team has produced dozens of iconic ornaments, made of metal or granite, in flat relief or 3D, some lit up, some mobile. The final designs range from shiny metal locomotives to intricately designed granite miniatures of the entire building. <\/p>\n The 2025 design \u2014 a view of the Capitol as seen from Congress Avenue in downtown Austin \u2014 is a throwback to the inaugural \u201cFirst Edition\u201d design in 1996, if modernized a bit.<\/p>\n The ornament shows the Capitol\u2019s entire south face, decorated with holiday wreaths and Yaupon Holly swags wrapped around its columns, the board\u2019s description says. The six flags that have flown over Texas appear on the south pediment, with both the Texas and U.S. flags flying above the entrance. The 1889 Great Walk, paved in a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, is flanked by a grand all\u00e9e of trees, leading visitors inside.<\/p>\n Texas Capitol ornaments through the years<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of dozens of designs that, over the years, have turned the Capitol ornament into a recognizable Lone Star collectible.<\/p>\n A wee statue of the Goddess of Liberty spinning inside golden rings covered in stars debuted in 2006. Three years later, it was black and gold, rectangular \u2014 the shape and feel of a tapestry \u2014 regarded as one of the more unique designs in the collection. Another from that era used a colorful disc depicting the six flags over Texas. The ornaments start at $25. The current design is fairly typical: Finished in 24-karat gold and 3.5 inches by 3.4 inches.<\/p>\n Older ornaments can be purchased in sets of miniatures. They are available online<\/a> through the board. The money goes to the preservation board, a taxpayer-funded state agency that releases a new specialty Texas-themed ornament every year.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n The ornament release has become a ritual for many, from Capitol employees to repeat customers who buy the ornament every year as gifts.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people will come in and buy six because they give one to each family member every year,\u201d said Lisa Gentry, shop manager. \u201cSometimes they buy the year of their child\u2019s birth. There\u2019s a lot who have a Texas tree, which is only the Texas ornaments that they\u2019ve shopped for in our stores.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawmakers as designers<\/p>\n Rep. Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez, D-Dallas, has the entire miniature collection and several annual ornaments from her four terms in office. Her favorite ornaments, she said, are the ones lawmakers design each Christmas to reflect their home districts. Those hang on the Texas House Christmas tree each season and aren\u2019t for sale.<\/p>\n This year, she had two designed by Jesse Acosta and Alejandra Zendejas, co-founders of Pasos for Oak Cliff, a Dallas nonprofit that provides sneakers and other support services to underserved students. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a small but meaningful way to showcase the flavor of our community\u2026 a reminder that every district has its own voice,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said.<\/p>\n On the consumer side, on a random Thursday two weeks before Christmas, the Capitol gift shop \u2014 next door to the building\u2019s popular Capitol Grill \u2014 sold more than 300 of the shiny 2025 Texas Capitol keepsakes. <\/p>\n That one design. In one day. In just that one shop.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople really love them,\u201d Gentry said the following day, as more than 100 flew off her shelves before noon. \u201cToday it\u2019s been nonstop.\u201d <\/p>\n All the trimmings of the 2025 Texas Capitol ornamentDesign: South-facing view of the Capitol from Congress AvenueFinish: 24-karat goldSize: About 3.5 inches by 3.4 inchesPrice: Starts at $25Where they\u2019re soldCapitol gift shop (underground extension)Bob Bullock Museum of Texas HistoryCapitol Visitors\u2019 CenterOnline through the Preservation BoardWhere the money goes<\/p>\n Proceeds support the Texas State Preservation Board, a taxpayer-funded agency that maintains the Capitol and other historic buildings.<\/p>\n Letters to the Editor – Spelling champs, Sharia law, Rob Reiner, gun laws, City Hall<\/a>Ted Cruz set to question FCC chief he compared to a mob boss for implied threats to ABC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 In a state where political fights rarely take a holiday, one small tradition offers a respite,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1972,287,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-91369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-holidays","9":"tag-politics","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/B2HTLYC6IBARXAZE5HRYY33W2I.jpg\")
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