Today marked the grand opening of the Hallmark Gold Crown Store in Woodbridge. To commemorate the event, the Mayor of Vaughn Maurizio Bevilacqua was invited to cut the red ribbon, which he thought was the nicest ribbon he'd ever had to cut. And it's not because he was a Liberal member of Parliament, he joked.


Customers were invited to view the entire collection of Hallmark products and also enter to win a number of fabulous prizes with winners being announced periodically throughout the day. Up for grabs is a fully loaded Christmas tree with 100 Hallmark ornaments from the 2011 collection, valued at $2500. You can still stop by and enter to win because they won't be picking a winner until November 16.


Some of the newest additions to the store include their gorgeous Accessories department which features beautiful ChocoStyle shoes, fun and funky Lolita martini glasses, colourful and affordable scarves, and fashionable bags by Lug.


Their expansive array of Hallmark stationery was on sale for 25% off.


My son was fascinated by all the ornaments, especially if it was a train, car or fire truck.


He couldn't get enough of the Christmas Express Musical Train either.


My daughter really loved the giant Husky.


And so did my son.


In fact, they loved interacting with several of the items in the Hallmark store. They also had a chance to meet the wonderful Charlene from Listen to Lena and her two adorable sons. I'm telling ya, their smiles would melt your heart. We were going to stay for the magic show but had to leave early due to a family emergency. But not before we had a chance to meet Blake Carter from ChumFM who was there to cover the event during a live 3-hour broadcast.


The shopping experience was really quite enjoyable. There was so much to see, lots of room to move around and plenty of new and creative gift ideas. Have a look at the photo slideshow to view more of the new Hallmark Gold Crown store.


Stay tuned for some Hallmark product reviews in the coming weeks. #PressPausePanel