The Farewell to Local "Keeper of Christmas" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a fellow named Jim Morrison, known to generations as "the Keeper of Christmas" in his role as founder and former curator of the beloved national Christmas Center died October 13 of natural causes at Kadima Rehabilitation & Nursing Home in Lititz, PA, where he spent two years of his life, according to those closest to him.  He was 85 years old.   The National Christmas Center opened its doors in 1998 in a 20,000-square-foot building in Paradise Township, where it remained for the next 20 years.  During that time thousands of people, including myself and my dear wife, made our way through the museum to marvel at the antique decorations from Christmasases past.  The center now operates seasonally in Dauphin County near the county line.  The center had been a lifelong vision for Morrison that developed as a child in New Jersey, when his mother drove him to Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving to see the holiday-themed store displays.  "Everybody flocked to see the start of Christmas," Morrison told Lancaster Newspaper in 2018.  "My mother did so much to make Christmas great."  In the days after Christmas, a young Morrison would roam neighborhood streets lined with discarded Christmas trees and plucked from them any ornaments he could find.  "As a teenager, if there was snow on the ground on Christmas Eve, he'd put on skis, then take them off to walk up to the front doors of others in his neighborhood," recalled Katherine Miller, a Berks County woman who assisted Morrison at the center, "so when the kids woke up the ext morning, it would appear as though Santa had been up and down the street."  Morrison''s Christmas collection grew through his years of serving in the U.S. Army.  He was a model-maker, crafting items like a wooden gun case that held a pair of pistols the Texan Rangers gifted to President John F. Kennedy, and 250 sets of bookends that president Lyndon B. Johnson gave others as gifts.  "He also made models of the terrain in Vietnam to help the military in planning whatever actions they were doing over there," Miller said.  Morrison later ran a small company that restored historic houses in Wahington, D.C.  Along the way he sold antique postcards, and one of his customers was the former Gotham Book Mart in New York Cty.  The connection led to Morrison putting up a Christmas tree on the store's balcony decorated with antique ornaments that could be purchased by customers, with proceeds going to help the needy.  He opened the Christmas Center in Lancaster.  There was a reason behind the center's location, as the area has historical ties to Christmas.  "The first documented Christmas tree in America was in Lancaster city in 1821." Morrison was quoted as saying to LNP.  "It was the Germans that started the tree.  Possibly Martin Luther by putting candles on the tree.  So many things happen with immigration.  They brought their traditions to Lancaster.  They would wrap the tree in cotton to look like the new-fallen snow.  All the references came from Lancaster and those trees.  It's just a strong Christmas tradition in this area.  And I wanted people to learn about that."  For 20 years, Morrison estimated tens of thousands of people made their way through the museum each year to marvel at the antique decorations that took visitors on a journey through Christmas history; the center was featured in national magazines an on the Travel channel.  Morrison and co-owner Muretagh closed the Christmas Center in January 7, 2018, largely because of their ages.  About a year later, Morrison and Murtaugh sold the contents of the center to David Abel for an undisclosed price.  Abel is the steward of Stone Gables Estate in West Donegal Township, where he led the reconstruction of the iconic Star Barn and surrounding outbuildings.  He plans to put the Christmas collection in the reconstructed Belmont Barn, which was dismantled along Fruitville Pike in 2015 and is currently in storage.  The center still operates each Christmas season in a leased warehouse in Dauphin County that's about 5 miles north of Stone Gables Estate.  A celebration of life to remember Morrison, was be held at the Star Barn, 1 Hollinger Lane, West Donegal Township.  Morrison will be buried in a private ceremony at a cemetery in this hometown of Haddonfield, New Jersey.  Before his death, Morrison approved the engravings for his headstone, in descending order, will be his name, birth date, and the title by which he most enjoyed being called....SANTA!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.