Nostalgic Christmas Shopping

Still nostalgic after all these years:

ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 15, 2018 

When I was growing up  every town had at least one iconic department store that did Christmas right: fabulous back-lit and magical Christmas displays, often animated, gracing all of their street level windows. In a time before kids were so wired into their iPhones and “social” networks that they missed much of the amazement of the real world, there were all these fabulous windows of mystery and wonder, free for the taking. All it took was a dime bus ride downtown. 

I was very lucky as my hometown, Grand Rapids, MI, had three such emporiums of merchandise, all founded in the late 1800’s:

All now long gone. One of them, Herpolsheimer’s,  however lives on as it has been memorialized in the film version of Chris Van Allsburg’s book The Polar Express.

The old Herp’s, as the locals called it, had what was called  the “Santa Express” – a monorail that ran around the entire basement level of the store during the Christmas season to keep kids occupied as mom and dad shopped.

Santa’s Rocket Express, Herpolsheimer’s 1949

It is said to have served as the inspiration for Van Allsburg’s  popular book.

The old Herpolsheimer’s building,

Print found on Pinterest but tracked down to ArleneFaye

which once housed the inspirational train and window wonders currently houses the Grand Rapids Police Department. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you probably wouldn’t want to take your kids there for a festive Christmas pot pie lunch in their tea room.

And don’t even get me started on the “dime” stores, of which Grand Rapids also enjoyed three:

Print found on Pinterest but tracked down to ArleneFaye

Woolworths, above, at the foot of Monroe, Grants, right next door, and Kresge’s just up a block to the east.

Print found on Pinterest but tracked down to ArleneFaye

Also all gone.

What about your town’s locally owned iconic department stores? Do any of them still exist? Are any of them still in the downtown area? Or is your downtown comprised of restaurants, bars and clubs these days? Just wondering.

Happy Sunday before Christmas MOTI! Be sure to post your favorite Christmas recipes even if you’ve done so before as some of us forget to save things or save them to places we forget about.

And everyone, thank GW. I’m not sure if he invented the “Recipe: DRINK!” game or just popularized it. Either way, have a great day cooking and/or drinking.