Topps released their annual holiday baseball card offerings in late 2022, continuing a tradition of fun, themed cards to celebrate the holidays and ring in the new year. As with previous Holiday releases, the 2022 set featured many of baseball’s biggest stars in festive poses and settings sure to bring some holiday cheer to collectors and fans alike.
Some key things to know about the Topps Holiday Baseball Cards 2022 release:
The base set included 125 total cards, with photos of current MLB players dressed in holiday attire like Santa hats, reindeer antlers, and ugly sweaters. Popular veterans and young stars were all featured.
Parallels and insert sets added to the collector chase. Holiday parallels included photo and artist variants with snowflake, ribbon, and candy cane designs.
Popular inserts included Candy Cane Lane, featuring close-up headshots of players with candy cane striped borders. Another stood out insert set was Christmas Lights, placing players in front of colorful holiday light displays.
For the first time, Topps included autographed memorabilia cards in the Holiday release. Rated rookies and veteran stars provided autographs on cards that blended signature relics with festive holiday graphics.
International players joined the fun, showing that the holiday spirit crosses borders. Stars from various Latin American countries celebrated their own cultural traditions like Dia de los Reyes and Three Kings Day.
Bonus pack incentives and prize cards added to the excitement of the product. Rare parallel photo variations carried scarce print runs to entice collectors to seek the elusive chase cards.
Some notable individual cards that stood out in the set and excited collectors included:
Shohei Ohtani Santa – The Japanese two-way star donned a full Santa Claus outfit complete with hat, beard, and bag of toys in a fun nod to his popularity on both sides of the Pacific.
Bryce Harper Christmas Sweater – The slugging outfielder sported an ugly Christmas sweater with lights and embroidered snowflakes spelling out his last name – a reminder of the holidays even for MLB’s biggest stars.
Julio Rodriguez Reindeer Antlers – The emerging young Mariners star showed his playful side by donning reindeer antlers in full uniform, an homage to his breakout rookie campaign.
Albert Pujols Three Kings Day – The future Hall of Famer celebrated Epiphany traditions from his native Dominican Republic, honoring his cultural roots through the holiday parallel photo.
Judge/Ohtani Candy Cane Lane Duo – Two of the game’s biggest talents stood side by side sporting candy stripes, a perfect insert encapsulating the 2022 season for the AL Triple Crown contenders.
deGrom Snow Day Auto – A 1/1 red parallel autographed memorabilia card of the Mets ace posed casually by some fake snow, a true rarity for dedicated deGrom PC collectors.
As with any year, the Holiday release maintained Topps’ tradition of putting fun, seasonally-themed cardboard into the hands of fans during the most wonderful time of the year. With over a century of experience producing baseball cards, Topps once again succeeded in crafting a memorable and coveted collector’s item to ring in the holidays. Whether adding to player collections or bringing smiles during gift-exchanging, the 2022 Topps Holiday Baseball Cards brought some yuletide cheer to the hobby.
