Sleighbells ring!

What say the writer of our quest? 

Tally-ho!

A little pedestrian seeming, KMart usually has a gem or two for our treasure seeking eyes, so across the street we head. This might seem a likely place to fight off the Black Friday hordes but apparently the bargains were early or nonexistent so we are safe from deal ravagement. 

Nostalgia is a particular fancy as you might note-- the tender look on St. Nick's face caught my eye. There are pluses and minuses to this ornamental trimming. Perhaps a bit too homemadeish??? hmm....

This k-nick-k-nack is reminiscent of days gone by. But it does it say CHRISTMAS!!! And does it say something to me about Christmas? and does it say "Buy me!!!!" 

We almost always find our annual Christmas tin at KMart and each person has one to contain his or her ornaments in.

Occasionally we got off task and found avenues of silliness that we had not found before. The hat had a strangely Harry Potteresque ability to move on it's own which was a bit discombobulating.    

Lacking the wall to wall Christmas glam that we'd just left at Le Grue's or the places we anticipated going to, KMart was a quick slip down the chimney and off we flew to the next stop... 

St. Nick's

A family run establishment, the mom and pop shop started up during the Carter Administration (yup, before the Reagan revolution!). Initially, the Christmas ornaments were an extension of their little gift shop in "a mall" (most likely in the basement of Cinderella City- one of the great old malls that has gone the way of the bulldozer) but now they boast 20 rooms in this building open nearly year round with 90 themed Christmas trees!   

At this point, Christmas lays before us like a great banquet. There are ornaments and decorations on every limb and branch. Every nook and cranny is filled with bobbles or doodads or trinkets. We studied and we stared, not wanting to miss a single Christmas embellishment that would add something to our Christmas day.  

At this juncture it becomes a tilt-a-whirl of choice. 

Aha! Choices have been made!!! 

Have the shoppers finished their rounds? Was the gluttony of beautiful bobbles too much? Have they spent all their tuppence and now it's time to go home and gloat over their treasures unaware of the trove that  might have been missed... ??

Yet maybe their baskets are filled with the booty of the day's hunt so perhaps they are sated. 

That remains to be seen...