Enchanted Village - Nostalgia Reigns

 

At this time of the year, nostalgia reigns. We remember those perfect holiday seasons in years past and all the things we did as kids when the snow was deeper, the ice wasn't as hard when we fell down and it took forever for Christmas to arrive every year.

Lin and I have been hearing an ad on the radio for the Enchanted Village in Avon, Massachusetts. It's a huge 20th century holiday village that used to be on display every holiday season at Jordan Marsh in Boston when we were kids. It was there for 30 years. I even took Lin to see it when she was little.

Then Jordan Marsh, a Boston department store icon since 1861, went out of business and the village lay dormant until the city of Boston bought it. When the city couldn't afford to display it any more, they put it up for auction. Along came Jordan's Furniture owner, Eliot Tatelman, who bought it, restored it and now it's on display once again … for free, no less!

Though we had no plans to buy any furniture, we headed to Jordan Furniture to check it out. We walked through acres and acres of furniture to get to the holiday activities. Then waited in long lines for our turn to have fun.

We followed the crowded queue through the storybook village enjoying the fine details that created an ambiance of holiday spirit from days gone by.

They've commercialized and added to the spectacle just a bit. There's a synthetic ice rink, which we saw, but didn't try and a holiday laser light show that we thought was pretty lame.

The 4-D 20 minute version of Polar Express was a multi-sensual experience and absolutely outstanding. We wore fashionable 3D glasses so the screen jumped out at us. We had to fasten our seat belts to hold us in our seats which moved in every possible direction as the Polar Express train went out of control on roller coaster hills before arriving at the North Pole. When hot chocolate was served on the train, we smelled hot chocolate and when the children were sitting by the Christmas tree, the scent of evergreen wafted through the theater. We felt snow and cold wind on our faces. It was hoot.

They even offered the huge blueberry muffins that we used to be able to buy at Jordan Marsh while we walked through the village. A touch of nostalgia … just what I needed to fight off the post-holiday blahs and missing David.

On the Third Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

Three e-mailed errands

Two bigger duffels

And a Christmas morning greeting on Skype

(feel free to sing this out loud … we certainly do)