Christmas Comes To Grand Haven

Hello! Earlier this week I traveled to Grand Haven, a town about a half hour north of me, on "official business" (aka jury duty). I arrived early enough one morning of the three-day trial to walk around the downtown blocks. Thus, I got to take in the sights of retail's most festive time of year, Christmas. (I enjoy seeing how shops decorate their windows for the season). What follows are a few pics I took of the displays. 

I loved the above sign, which relates that "Grandpa's Holiday Farmwas built in the early 1940's by the famous Macy's department store in NYC." From there, the animated display went from Hudson's in Detroit to a store in Saginaw. The display made its way to Grand Haven via an antique store in Bay City. 

Grandpa's Holiday Farm covers several small storefront windows. I dutifully took pictures of all the scenes, but only one of them turned out okay:

Above, a small flock of chickens cavort, but alas, frolicking goats and Santa didn't photograph well. But do check the vignettes out if you're in downtown Grand Haven this month. 

Although the weather was mild for this time of year last week, these groupings of wintry-looking blow mold figures put me in the holiday mood!

A touch of France along the lakeshore. 

"Make more cookies" says the sign above the display of dozens of cookie cutters. Sounds like a great idea to me!

But if you'd rather buy some sweet stuff instead of making them, here's a display of imported treats:

Marzipan, torrone, chocolate Santa - can't go wrong here!

Ho ho ho! This Santa stands guard over his shop. 

And what is Christmas without children and their toys? This building set looked awesome! Don't know the brand, but perhaps the pieces are held together by magnets?

But lest we think that Christmas is just about getting presents, I saw this on a display window tree (I think at the Tri-Cities Historical Museum):

It appeared that this tree had been decorated with ornaments made by children, including paper stars on which wishes had been written. "This Christmas I Wish for Kindness". Indeed! This was a wonderful reminder of what is truly important, this time of year and of course during the other 11 months of the year as well. 

Due to jury duty, I had no time to do anything in downtown Grand Haven but take these photos (well, we did get lunch breaks, but I don't like to eat and run if I can avoid it, so I used that time to relax and linger over my meal). So now I'm thinking that I ought to return to Grand Haven so I can actually go in the shops.