Good Evening, Everyone!
Almost Christmas.
You would think shopping would be winding down,
but Mr. B said it was still wild when he was out a little while ago, grocery shopping.
Jonathan, 18 now, did his first Christmas-gift shopping all by himself...
He came home, wrapped what he had purchased,
and went back out.
(To shop a little more ~ something he had forgotten ~ )
Thoroughly pleased with himself, I could tell.
I have spent the last few days totally immersed in finishing commissions
and "promises"...to the point that I didn't get things finished that were
gifts I was giving to some dear friends...
But, good friends that they are, they understand ~
We will continue the season throughout the upcoming weeks....
It is this way more often than not.
But really, Christmas should be a mind-set, not a rush to have
everything done by a certain date ~ don't you agree?
That's what I tell myself, anyway!
To quote Mr. Dickens,
" I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.”
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~
I wanted to share something that was so special to me when I was little...
My "Baby Jesus figures" ~ the "Manger Scene" , my Mom would correct ~
I had to have been really small when my Mom got the first ones,
and we would add one figure every year,
from Woolworth's 5 and Dime, in Sikeston, Missouri.
I remember Woolworth's...
I recently told a friend that it smelled like movie-theatre popcorn
and sounded like parakeets...
I can close my eyes, even though it's been 50 (+) years
and be right back there...
getting goldfish that would live for a few weeks,
or bubble bath that would last for a few minutes,
that evening and a maybe a few more
(if I didn't pour too much in);
and then every Christmas, these figures that have lasted
for longer than anyone would have expected.
Mom always wanted us to pick the prettiest-painted faces,
and I've always thought that my Mother Mary and the Angel
had the most beautiful countenances...
as well as the Baby Jesus.
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~
Three of my original figures
...so pretty!
~
~
The funny thing is, up until the past few years,
I preferred newer Nativities...
Tasteful ones, all-of-a-color ~ I had a terra-cotta set when
my older children were small...
My dime-store set from the late 50s and early 60s,
made of papier-mache and painted in bright colors,
was just too kitschy for my taste!
(It stayed boxed-up for many a Christmas, after I was grown...)
And now, I cherish it.
I look to eBay to add to it...
Who would have thought, after all these years,
that I could add more angels and shepherds from the same era?
~
~
This year, I added four angels...
and a smaller, lamb-carrying shepherd boy.
~
~
This is from my original set...twenty-nine cents...can you imagine?
And we just got one new figure a year.
~
~
This is the price tag on the camel...
If not for the tag left on, I would have thought he was from
my original set...that is what I thought...
until I turned him over and saw the Newberry's price tag,
and remembered getting him on a trip to Saint Louis to see my aunt...
if my Mom had removed the tag (the first thing I do when I purchase something
that will be displayed, whether it is on the bottom or not),
the memory would have been lost.
~
~
Look at this photo I found of a vintage, circa 1910 Woolworth's Christmas display...
Wouldn't you love to have a time machine,
as my friend Wendy says, and go back there?
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This was downtown Sikeston, a long time ago ~ a vintage postcard that
shows where Woolworth's was on Front Street...
Downtown doesn't look like this anymore...
I look at the card, and picture what is there, now ~ a gift shop where
Woolworth's was. Surely that small retail space couldn't have contained all
those childhood memories!
♥
~
If I don't post again before then,
I want to wish all of you the merriest of Christmases!
Love,
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