Seems We Just Get Started and Before You Know It...

Sorry, two Carol Burnett references in one week.  But as I was saying, Christmas is already here!  Those 25 days went quick.  Welcome to Day 25 and a Merry Christmas!

I found these animatronic Mr. and Mrs. Claus last summer at the annual Gramond Street sale in Affton, Missouri. It was the same sale where I previously found this Harold Gale piece.

They weren't as cheap as the Harold Gale I bought there (I only paid $5 for that).  The seller was asking $50 a piece, but I got them for $75 for the pair.  They were part of a department store display in Ohio made by the Creegan company. In speaking with the seller (who turned out to be one of the largest collectors of animated Christmas figures in the St. Louis area), he had purchased them as part of the closing of the Creegan company in 2010.

Like husband and wife team Harold and Viola Gale, George Creegan and his wife JoAnn started their own company that manufactured puppets and animatronic figures which were used in department stores around the world.  George Creegan even starred in a local Steubenville, Ohio children's show called "Creegan and Crow".

Creegan also provided the animatronics to the Mr. Rogers attraction at Idlewild Park in Pennsylvania.

A large number of animatronics were lost when The Creegan Company warehouse burned in December of 2013.

JoAnn passed away in 2003. George passed away in January of this year.

A couple of their designs, along with a Harold Gale Santa opening a treasure chest I picked up at the same sale, are now on display in my front window.

Merry Christmas and thanks for following me this month.  See you in the New Year!

Here Comes Santa Claus

It's Christmas Eve and Santa is frantically preparing his sleigh and packing all the toys for good girls and boys.  This Christmas chime demonstrates how fast a plump, jolly old elf can run.

I'm So Glad We Had These Stockings Together

If there'd been a "Vicki" stocking, I'd have sworn these were the Christmas stockings of the surviving members of The Carol Burnett Show. (Okay, as Joe pointed out in the comments, Tim Conway is still with us. Sorry, Tim.)

Somebody really blinged out these stockings.  It seems to have been a popular practice in the 1960's.  They remind me of this Santa mail holder I found years ago.

Reader's Digest Condensed - December 1968

It's time for the December edition of Reader's Digest Condensed, which of course means, just the ads.  But as a bonus in honor of Christmas, I'm including "St. Nicholas: The People's Saint" for a bit of history on the jolly fat man in red.

Sunken Treasure

Milton Bradley's "Sunken Treasure" game is another spin (pun intended) on "Operation".

Pine Cone Elves

These pine cone elves I found at one sale look right at home with this log cabin I found at another. The cabin needs a few repairs. It's a good thing elves are handy with hammers.

Mall Memories -- Day of Christmas

During the late '70's and early '80's, there was an annual event celebrated in my family.  One weekday in December my mother would call my sister and me in sick at school. Then along with my other sister, we would head off to the "big" mall. We had our own local shopping mall, but there was another, larger and more grand, with more shopping and dining options: Crestwood Mall in South St. Louis County, Missouri.

Crestwood Mall 1986