Supporting Lee Soo Man SHINee and purchasing their Season’s Greetings annually during the end of the year has been a tradition for me – just that I was always stuck between choosing the wall or the desk calendar versions. However this year, SM has helped to eliminate my worries by only releasing only a desk calendar version. But SM has also increased the price of Season’s Greeting this year by bundling up the calendar with a scheduler (not that I will bear to use it anyway) and a DVD.

(Note: Photos are taken using my phone and if you want HQ scans, there’s probably already tons out there available online)

Calendar

 

This year, SHINee’s photoshoot concept is geared more towards a monochrome feel, somewhat similar to the concept for their Symptoms stages – except without those ridiculously long black hats, and slightly with more colour variations besides their black and white performance outfits. Of course for this year, SHINee’s autographs and well wishes for the new year are also printed on the calendar, or fans will feel cheated as though as they had opened their albums without any photocard inside.

 

 

The difference in this year’s Season’s Greetings as compared to past years is that this time round, it’s the same member for both photos for the same month. In past years, there will be members randomly allocated for each month – eg. Jonghyun on a side and Key on the another.

However, what SM never fails to do is to make sure that for a member’s birthday month, it will be him featured for that month – except Onew and Minho (both are December babies!) So, if you refer to the images above, April – Jonghyun’s birthday; July – Taemin’s birthday; September – Key’s birthday. My guess is that because SHINee’s anniversary falls in May, the representative of that month will none other be leader Onew. As for June and December, the halves of a year – SHINee’s group photos were chosen instead.

 

Sticker (freebie?) Comparison

This is the sticker (or… freebie?) that came along with the calendar so you can paste circles on important dates. Here is a comparison of the freebies that came along with previous years’ calendars:

 

 

For 2012, I bought the wall calendar version, thus the HUGE sticker that came along with it (I put it alongside 2014’s calendar and scheduler for comparison). The 2011 Season’s Greetings still came with free postcards!

 

Packaging Comparison

As compared to previous years, packagings for SHINee’s Season’s Greetings are usually in brown cardboard boxes. However this year round, the packaging is designed to match the colour scheme of the calendar’s photoshoot.

 

Scheduler

The scheduler is basically, a scheduler, with bonus SHINee photos.

 

 

I did not take any photos of the DVD because it’s basically a CD in a paper CD pocket – nothing fanciful.

 

I don’t know how limited edition the SMTOWN Week merchandises are – but seems like you only can get them at SMTOWN Week itself and not from Everysing or the pop-up store. Anyway I managed to get hold of SHINee’s postcard set and photo set thanks to our dear video editor ^^ and so, I’ll be writing about them as well.

 

SMTOWN Week Limited Edition Postcard Set

The photos used for the SMTOWN Week merchandise are so gorgeous, especially the breathtaking close-up portrait shots – look at Key and Taemin for example! I personally prefer this photoshoot a million times over the Season’s Greetings one, just that this does not have a proper theme – but as long as the boys look good, who cares!

Of course, the best is reserved for the last…

 

SMTOWN Week Limited Edition Photo Set

This is really indeed a work of art. Although some of the photos are similar to one in the postcard set, these are in A4 size, and there are 15 photos in total (compared to 12 for the postcard set) = 3x of each SHINee member in their perfection.

 

Imagine the shock I received when I pulled the photos out to reveal a huge Jonghyun staring back at me… (not that I’m complaining!)

To conclude off this *~shining SHINee~* filled post, don’t you think Taemin looks absolutely stunning in this photo? ^^;;

 

So… get your hands on SHINee’s 2014 Season Greetings if you have not! (and the SMTOWN Week merchandise if you can do so!)