A VISIT TO THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPE....

 We spent the day in Brissie today.  We headed down for a chiropractic appointment  and then we had booked to visit the Van Gogh Live Exhibition in the afternoon...

We had morning tea at Sarah's and then she wanted us to head out with her to do a little birthday shopping... One of the shops she wanted to visit was right next to the Christmas Shack, and that was enough for Barb and I, we headed there whilst Steve and Sarah headed into the Harry Potter Store. 

 

 To me, Christmas comes before Harry Potter and I was eager to check out all the beautiful Christmas decorations as the store was huge...

The owners of this store obviously have a passion for Christmas and a flair for decorating.  Apparently they travel the world looking for quality decorations at affordable prices.  They have decorations from all corners of the world and all cultures... 

They had the most wondrous display of Christmas Trees,   

The decorations were amazing, lots had a very hefty price tag also, but a lot were huge and the sort that would be bought by corporations and shopping centres to decoration their businesses... 

The eye candy though made our day.  There is something quite lovely about Christmas and all the decorations etc...

 

 They had many unique items that they sourced and a lot of them are created exclusively for the Christmas Shack, and because they are so heavily decorated with Christmas trimmings, it really creates a wonderland that gives you a sense of joy just to wander through their store...

 

They had the most incredible display of Santas, both English, European and Scandanavian

I splurged out and bought one of these for our Silver themed Christmas this year..

Mr and Mrs Claus

They also had a huge range of novelty Christmas products like Christmas toilet paper, and lots of disposal plates, serviettes, tableclothes etc.  In fact anything at all you needed for Christmas, you could find here....  Honestly it was a place for one stop Christmas shopping...

Christmas toilet paper

Ginger bread houses

Barb filling her Christmas basket

They also had an amazing range of cellephone bags for those who want to give Christmas baking as gifts.  I ended up getting two beautiful little cloth Christmas bags for gifting a bottle of wine...

They haven't forgotten the lighting enthusiasts either, as they have a dedicated stand alone lighting room with so many wonderful lighting options along with inflatable Christmas decorations.

By the time we got into the lighting section, Steve and Sarah had joined us and Steve was quite mesmerised by all the beautiful optic fibre decorations, his favourite being a wreath for the front door.  At $129 it was a little beyond our budget for Christmas decorations...

Salt and Pepper shakers...

Amazing wreaths

So many wonderful things to feast our eyes upon, so many temptations.... 

Christmas is such a magical time of the year, that I decided to do a little research on some of the beautiful Christmas decorations...  Not every country has tinsel on their Christmas trees.  I know in Denmark, the Christmas trees I have seen, haven't had tinsel but little strings of Danish flags...

Apparently the origins of tinsel can be traced back to the early 1600s in Germany.  The tinsel of 400 years ago was nothing like the tinsel we use today.  The first tinsel was made from shredded silver, real silver.   Tinsel makers hammered the silver until flat and then cut it into thin strips.  When supply would not keep up with demand, the tinsel makers invented machines to help increase production.  Later versions of tinsel were made with a tin and lead combination.  This proved to be too heavy though, so we have the Brits to thank for the light silver sparkly tinsel we enjoy today...

The Santa Claus we know today wasn't always a sleight riding gift giving jolly man in a red suit.  His origins date back to a 4th century Greek saint. Saint Nicholas was the historic 4th century Greek saint with a reputation for secret gift giving. Saint Nicholaas van Myra, was born in what is present day Turkey on 15th March 270AD and died at the age of 73 on December 6th in 343AD.  He was the patron saint of children, and St Nicholas Day is celebrated every December 6th (the anniversary of the death of Nicholaas van Myra).  The traditional celebration consists of leaving gifts or coins in the shoes of children.  St Nicholas Day focuses on giving more than receiving and tells the story of a Christian saint whose model life inspired compassion and charity.

The custom of hanging stockings by the fireplace came from St. Nicholas. When Nicholas was alive, he knew a poor man who had three daughters. Because he was so poor, the man did not have enough money for a dowry which meant his daughters could not get married. One night, Nicholas, who had inherited a large sum of money after losing his parents at a young age, dropped a bag filled with gold down the chimney for the man. The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry. He did the same thing a second time. Legend says that the father secretly hid by the fire every evening, determined to find out who was giving him the money. He discovered it was Nicholas, and when he thanked him, it’s said that Nicholas told him he only had God to thank for gold. Nicholas became known for giving generously and humbly to those in need throughout his life.

Sarah found this chook hat and thought it was pretty cool.  Barb ended up buying a couple of the Christmas hats and she wanted to add to her collection that she already has...

Unlike Europe that only set up their Christmas trees the week before Christmas as they use real trees.  Europe has dedicated Christmas tree farms which supply trees for families to collect.  There's a bit of a lack of recorded history as to when fir and pine trees were first used as Christmas trees.  The general consensus is that it began about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe.  Many early Christmas trees would be hung upside down from the ceiling using chains (hung from chandeliers or lighting hooks. 

In Australia, we  plastic unfold and stand up trees are more popular, many for convenience and lack of a need to dispose of a pine or fir tree.  Also with our heat here, the real trees don't survive for more than a few days without loosing their leaves....

Steve's favourite wreath and the one he would like for our front door...

Christmas chook hat...

How did Santa's headquarters end up all the way at the North Pole?  especially since the figure of Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas of Myra who lived in Turkey....  The cartoonist Thomas Nast can be thanked for having Santa reside at the North Pole.  Apparently back in the mid 1800s, the Arctic was seen as a bit of a fantasy land.  The Arctic was known as a place of constant snow and snow has been associated with the holiday spirit and Christmas cheer.  No one had seen the North Pole, so no one knew what was happening there, it was both mysterious and just out of reach so it made the perfect location for Santa's home and his bustling workshop.  Thomas Nast was also responsible for the physical appearance of Santa that we have grown to love.  He was the first person to draw the famous figure as round and jolly.

We had lots of fun trying on all the different Christmas hats and Barb was pretty keen on these glittery and metalic hats so they were going home with her.  I am sure that John will be pleased as these were no where near as outlandish as some she has bought in the past....

These days we have so many choices of Christmas lights, coloured and white, but the early Christmas trees were decorated with candles to represent the stars.  In many parts of Europe and especially in Denmark candles are still used to decorate the Christmas trees.  When we visited a few years ago, we danced around the Christmas tree singing carols, and the Christmas tree was all lit up with real candles in the tree. 

I wouldn't be game to use them back home here as we have an artificial tree and I would be scared that it would catch alight.  The first electric powered Christmas lights were invented by an American named Ralph Morris back in 1895, and surprisingly the lights we use today are not all that different to the original Morris design of over 100 years ago. 

Just love these Santa's..

Love this nativity scene display also...

We found quite a few elves on the Shelf also.  This is a relatively new Christmas tradition and was started back around 2004-2005.  It started out as a story book, written by author Carol Aebersold who wrote about an elf whose job is to keen an eye on Christmas for Santa.  In the days leading up to Christmas, the elf reports back to Santa about which children are being naughty or nice, or so the story goes.  Needless to say, the story gave parents an idea about how to encourage their children to behave throughout the month of December.  

Through a series of clever surprises, parents typically surprise their kids each morning of December by placing the elf in different locations.  Over the years, finding new, clever and sometimes off the wall ideas for how to place the elf have become pretty elaborate. 

The Christmas baubles were first invented in Germany by Hans Greiner, who first manufactured them in the late 1840s.  The first baubles were fruit and nut shaped glass, eventually turning into a more spherical shape. 

Britain's Queen Victoria was said to be quite taken with the tradition of baubles and brought them from Germany to Europe in the mid to late 1800s. 

It was getting close to lunch time, so we knew that if we wanted to have a bit of lunch we would need to finalize our purchases as we had prepared ticked for our visit to the Van Gogh Live Exhibition for around 2pm that afternoon.

Barb was quite excited to show her husband John her purchases when she got home.  Surprisingly he really liked his new Christmas hat and was quite happy to pose for photos with it for us...

Think I would love to go back and visit this store again when I have a little more time.  We did find out that this store is open all year round, although i am not sure how much trade it would do in the first few months of the year...