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- Paradise Camp |
McKenzie River: Christmas TreasuresWell, at last to the Christmas shop, Christmas Treasures. This is a great place. First of all, the male half of the ownership is also a chain-saw artist, so outside are large (like 15' tall) totem poles of snowmen, brightly colored and charming, an European Father Christmas or two, a few elves and a bear and several other Christmas-oriented sculptures. These are not usually for sale, they're just for advertising and a hobby I guess. The sculpter, Patrick, told us that someone talked him into selling one of the snowmen totems for $2,000. He thought, now that he had done it once and worked out all the design issues, he could do it again faster, so he could replace it and still make a little money. But it didn't work that way and the outdoor art paint to make those colors bright and lasting is too expensive. Alas, now he's even less enthusiastic about ever selling them, so there is no chance you will see them in person unless you drive up Highway 126 in Oregon to his place.Which is a great plan any way. Besides the chainsaw art, they have, in my opinion, three additional legitimate claims to fame. One. They they have the largest lighted year-round Christmas tree ever. In the world. I'm pretty sure. It is a 150 feet tall Douglas fir, is decorated with 50,000 LED lights and has a 24 hour web cam. In order to see how marvelous it is, of course, you should look when it's not night on the west coast of the US. And not too foggy or snowy. Now is not a good time. (There also are some night shots on the web site if it's never a good time.) Two. They sell lights like are on that tree and it is the best Christmas tree light concept in the last 50 years. I know it is how we all will be doing it soon. Like the transition from candles to gas lights. And gas lights to electricity. These LED lights draw practically no current and will last for 20 years of continuous lighting. Believe me, Patrick didn't want to climb that tree to place the lights more than once in his lifetime, so I know it's true. I have bought four strings so I'll let you know how they work out and how well they cover if you're still skeptical. (You can check out these lights by following the link and gte some more technical info at this link.) Three. They have the greatest collection of Christmas tree ornaments that are fun, unusual, beautiful and not mass-produced that I have ever seen. In the shop there are at least a dozen tree displays, each with its own theme or style. There's the sports ornaments tree, the crystal ornaments tree, the nutcracker tree, the shiny, glittery ornaments tree, and so on. I couldn't possibly remember all of them or describe them with any accuracy, so I hope you can go and see. The most fun is the "local fauna" ornaments tree. It has trout, moose, deer, raccoons, grouse (I think), all from blown glass, wood carvings, ceramic, rag doll materials, etc, There also are some canoes and such like, so it wasn't all fauna, but the animals were the best. They also have fudge from the Brigattine monks in Amity and fruitcake from Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lafayette (these are both towns in Oregon) and a darn fine collection of Nevalaska dolls -- Russian nesting dolls. And the under-the-tree village sets are amazing. I'm not a collector of such things, but when we were there a tourist from Georgia just kept looking at prices and saying things like, "Well, I paid $40 too much for that. Well, they told me I couldn't get that." And so on. But in a very non-Christmas accent <gr>. Actually they appear to have an extensive online catalog for collectors of many things Christmas and non-Christmas, for example, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. So if you're a collector, check out their other offerings or one of their major artists, Heather Goldminc. My favorite category of Heather's products is Fruit Cocktail Windchimes <gr>. And do you think her name has always been Goldmine? Christmas Treasures also has many creche sets which I found charming. Usually I like the traditional Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus-in-the-manger, cows, shepherds, etc., and maybe the three wisemen for our own Christmas display. Actually, the nativity that we put out was mostly created by my oldest son from plain old modeling clay when he was quite young. I often have to re-shape the manger and blanket to expose the Babe's little pea-sized head and the sheep has long-since become indistinguishable from the camel. But we like it and probably will never change. One set that almost sold me, though, was the Bear-tivity, which was all western brown bears in the traditional roles, plus angels. (I hope none of you are offended by such commercial-Christmas shenanigans. I figure anything that makes people relate a little to the Christmas spirit can't be all bad, even non-Christians.) And yes, I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but they do a great, reliable mail order service, so think about it. ************ This is all I wrote while I was actually on vacation, so be warned, there may not be any more. Or maybe I'll get inspired if I can find my notes from earlier this summer when we stayed up river for a few days. Happy Election Day! |
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