On the Seventh Day of a Feminine Christmas
I picked up a free shopping publication at my local market this week. The cover shouted that it was my shopping guide to all the local stores and boutiques where I could turn my “holiday shopping into a fantasy Christmas adventure”. Sign me up…
My hometown had a wonderful genuine Main Street with plenty of places to buy gifts for the family on a 10 year old’s budget. Beside the Five and Dime, there was a record store, a small bookshop, several drugstores, and a clothing store that sold handkerchiefs and gloves. Shopping there with my brothers and sister or with pals was such a treat with the vintage seen-better-days decorations that spread across from side to side above our heads, the oversize bells and ribbons draped on the streetlights and the general jolly mayhem. Snow was often a part of the scene as well.
Many towns and cities had the same venue and since it was before mall shopping, most people naturally purchased their presents locally. And each foray into downtown (we called it “upstreet” because we lived south of Main Street and had to climb a slight elevation to reach the monument at the town summit), was truly a magical Christmas adventure. The shops were bright with red and green decorations and artificial snow that looked like shiny, wet coconut flakes. One window had a Santa year after year, with a mechanical arm that lifted a bottle of Coca-Cola to his smiling red lips. Even the shopgirls were dressed in Christmas finery, their pretty blouses pinned with festive corsages of flowers and sparkling plastic white bells or reindeer.
If you are lucky, you can find a small village or town that still has small shops for adventuresome Christmas shopping. You can make a day of it with a friend and then stop for tea or coco somewhere. But until Euorpean Christmas markets are common here, nothing will quite compare to the old days with its authentically manufactured joy.
What larks we had!
4 Comments
Tracy
Merry Christmas Donna!
The small Michigan town where we vacation matches perfectly your post.
I remember the five and dime in my small hometown, Sadly gone now along with the dance studio where my mom enrolled me for tap, ballet and modern dance. I still have the beautiful quilted, flowered bag with ric rac bordering the top.
Love all your posts, but especially those at Christmas.
God bless.
Dana
Gosh, what a beautiful visual I had reading this lovely post. It may be convenient to shop online but nothing at all compares to Christmas shopping in person on a very festive Main Street. Merry merry Christmas!
Ann Y.
Oh, yes! You captured the feeling! We went “downtown” on the bus from our little mining patch and it was magical. In 1963 when my sister got married I had saved 10 dollars of my money to buy gifts for my entire family. In Woolworths I bought my sister one of those tea towel calendars…..and I have done so every year since. Just visited her last week….gave her the one for 2023 ( hah, I purchased the same design as last year, but the new year – must have liked it.) and she hangs in the same spot for almost 60 years now. I remember that excitedment as I shopped in that amazing atmosphere…and then had a hot chocolate in the Candy Kitchen while waiting for the bus to take me home. MAGIC!
Karen
Oh, yes! When I was growing up, our house was about two blocks away from our very small potatoes “downtown”. There was a dress shop, a gift shop:stationary store, a drugstore, a supermarket, and a hardware store. My mother was the yearly recipient of a one dollar special from the gift shop, usually some sort of porcelain knickknack I was certain would complete her collection. Handkerchiefs–that was Dad’s present, sometimes stretching to a tie if I had remembered to save my money that year. My brother usually got a Matchbox car from the drugstore; my little sister, a small dolly or a Barbie accessory.
Today’s consumer, who only has to push a button, may never know the thrill of hunting over a display of inexpensive items to find just that perfect little trinket that’s affordable on a kids allowance.
Thank you for this sweet reminder of the joys of budgeting for a simple family Christmas. Loved this!! Merry Christmas!!