The "Memories of Christmas' Past: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Posting the remainder of my photos I have selected from the  trip Carol and I had taken a few days ago to the National Christmas Center in Paradise, PA.  The tour we took was self-guided and lasted close to an hour and a half, but we could have taken more or less time if we so chose.   There is seating throughout the tour if you tire of walking and you do the tour at your own pace.  We arrived on a Monday and there was very few others in the building, but the parking lot is very large with spaces for tour buses if needed.  I imagine that if you arrive on a weekend orh during the summer months when people vacation in the Amish Country, the place would be very crowded and hard to maneuver through the displays.  Certainly would be harder to take video or photographs with a larger crowd.  We each paid $12.50 for the tour with children's tickets at $5.00 and 2 and under free.  Check their website to get the days they are closed during the year; there are very few days when the place isn't open.  I photographed what I thought to be interesting to me, while you may find many other Christmas memories that have more meaning than what I photographed.  The place is amazing and has fantastic reviews on the Internet.  You won't be disappointed in the fifteen galleries that give you a look at Christmas throughout the world.  Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Click on photos to see them better.

This is Father Christmas of the United Kingdom.  Father Christmas developed from various European legends of the Dutch St. Nicholas, but also has roots going all the way back to the Mumming Plays of the Middle Ages.  As a character in these plays he became associated with the not traditional customs of wassailing, mistletoe, and the burning of the Yule log.  

This features, behind Santa, the cotton wrapped tree.   In 1833 Gustave Koerner discovered that there were no evergreens growing on the banks of the Mississippi in St. Clair County, Illinois.  In order to keep the Christmas tradition of a tree going he used a sassafras tree, wrapped the stark branches in cotton strips to resemble snow, and trimmed it with apples, candy, ribbons, bright paper, as well as hazel and hickory nuts.  Eventually glass ornaments and lighted candles were added.  Now, that last addition puzzles me, since I can't imagine lit candles on a dry tree covered with cloth.

This scene pictures the Night before Christmas in the 1950's.  Greeting cards were displayed, Bing Crosby was dreaming of a white Christmas and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.  The 5&10 was stocked with tree trimming material such as bubble lights, plastic ornaments and silver tinsel.  Here you can see Santa getting ready to head up the chimney after leaving gifts for the two young children by the tree.

This was a cast metal 1884 Nativity made in New York and displayed in a church in Canada.  It was found broken in a scrap yard and brought to the Christmas Center where it was restored back to health with missing parts fabricated to complete it.

These are figures manufactured by Byers Choice.  In the late 1960's Joyce Byers made the first figurines at the family's dining room table for friends and relatives.  Joyce was inspired to make these figures as she wanted to bring back the feeling of an old-fashioned Christmas.  These very collectible figures are still being manufactured and are fairly expensive to purchase.

The Creche is a popular custom of displaying a Nativity scene at Christmas and dates back to St. Francis of Assisi who resided in Italy in 1224.  One evening he saw shepherds asleep in the fields of nearby Greccio.  The image reminded him of the shepherds in the Christmas story.  He created a Nativity scene so that ordinary peasant folk could more fully understand the beauty and simplicity of the Holy Birth.  One of the displays at the Christmas Center features a stable structure from the 1880's.  I have added a few of the close to a hundred Nativity scenes that are on display in the Center.  Small signs tell you where they were made.

France

Russia

And this really neat Nativity which is on sale in the gift shop.  It features an Amish Nativity.

This photo and the following one are supposed to be a child's view of the Christmas Tree.  If you look above, it seems as if you are under a Christmas tree and the village and train yard in front of you would be the floor of a home.  Just so realistic and breathtaking.  Trains travel through the town and you can walk around the entire display just as you would if you were a child crawling under the tree.  What a wonderful gallery. 

There are quite a few display cases filled with toy trains of all gauges.  To go along with the trains are boxes and boxes of Plasticville buildings and miniature people.

This final photograph shows metal Cowboys and Indians.  I had a collection of close to 50 or more when I was a child.  A few of the boys in the neighborhood played in the dirt piles in our yard with them.  The samples on display are in perfect condition which mine certainly were not after years of playing Cowboys and Indians.