diff --git a/src/sugar/activity/widgets.py b/src/sugar/activity/widgets.py
index 75e99074..2867666f 100644
--- a/src/sugar/activity/widgets.py
+++ b/src/sugar/activity/widgets.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ _ = lambda msg: gettext.dgettext('sugar-toolkit', msg)
 
 
 def _create_activity_icon(metadata):
-    if 'icon-color' in metadata:
+    if metadata.get('icon-color', ''):
         color = XoColor(metadata['icon-color'])
     else:
         client = gconf.client_get_default()