“Nobody has to understand anything you do. This is your life, not a class project.”
~ Unknown (with props to Bobby Ray)
elves
Stacy insisted on seeing the Shillito Elves when we were in Cinci last week. For those who don’t know, Shillito’s was the first department store in Cincinnati. Today, the rest of the country knows it as Macy’s, but for most of its life, it was a regional store in Ohio and Kentucky. The Shillito family owned it until 1925, but when the owner died, Lazarus bought it. Some of you might remember Lazarus–the name the chain carried for a while before becoming Macy’s. In the 1950s, Shillito’s bought a set of elf dolls from Germany to use in their store window displays at Christmas. These window displays became extremely popular, and in the 1970s, the company had a new set of elves made and created SantaLand inside the store. People who grew up in or near Cinci between, say, the 1950s and the 1990s, have strong feelings about SantaLand and the Shillito Elves because they played such a significant role in their childhoods. Unfortunately, Shillito’s is no more, but at least for now, the elves have a dedicated space in Mariemont (a nearby burb). Some are still displayed in windows of Carew Tower downtown, a few blocks from their original Shillito’s store location, which has been turned into beautiful condos, The Lofts at Shillito Place. It was the latter elves we made a pilgrimage to see. They were sadly underwhelming, typifying American corporate ideas that rarely give two hoots about anything nostalgic, despite the enormous revenue potential of nostalgia. You see, when Lazarus/Macy’s moved, they ditched the elves who had come to define Cincinnati Christmas for hundreds of thousands of children, who were, by this time, adults with their own children and grandchildren (remember what I said about the revenue nostalgia can offer). The elves exist today only because a few dedicated collectors recognized their cultural value and saved them from the dumpster. The Mariemont location has the bulk of the collection and has recreated Shillito’s SantaLand. The windows at Carew Tower are an attempt to keep the Christmas spirit of old Cincinnati alive. I felt bad for Stacy. She’d looked forward to seeing them in their former glory. That’s not what we saw. Maybe the windows look better at night. However, I applaud the elves’ survival–well, really, I applaud the people who saved them. They get it, and I’m grateful they do.
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