Where are they?

I bought these space-agey Christmas tree ornaments at Sally Ann 3 years ago and now that I have a tree I can’t find them. I’ve looked everywhere – several times – and checked my folk’s basement to see if I was storing them there. It’s making me a little crazy.

Thrift Item of the Moment

Collapsible Christmas Tree

It’s been years since I’ve had a Christmas tree. This one appealed to me because it folds down nothing and takes no time to set up.

And it looks a little odd and ramshackle, but in an endearing way, like it was drawn by Dr. Seuss.

15 bucks at the Sally Ann. Including the garland and some stray tinsel.

I also bought these beauties to add to my collection of vintage tree ornaments. I’ll post a picture closer to Christmas when I have the tree decked out.

Christmas fridge magnets

…all is bright

There’s no lack of over-the-top Christmas house decorating in this burg, but Maisie’s Magical Christmas house takes the fruitcake.

I took my niece and her Australian friend there last night for a little look-see.

It’s a private house, owned by someone who loves Christmas a lot

or maybe just really hates their neighbours.

These people have been decorating their house since at least 2004. You can see from these pictures on their website that it started relatively modestly but has grown to a scale that far surpasses anything done by any local department store.

Santa in his front door grotto.

Seasonal tunes are piped over tinny speakers hidden around the property – at least a half dozen different Christmas songs playing all at once.

A little nightmarish, really (I wish my camera had audio).

All the windows have animated displays.

Penguins and polar bears frolic together in geographic inaccuracy.

We found this basement window the most charming – a toy train makes a circuit of a snow-covered village with a working carousel and people skating on a pond.

Astounding.

website

All is calm…

Not finished your Christmas shopping? Stressed out by crowds at the mall? I have the answer.

Thrift stores. Where I live they’re absolutely dead this time of year (Hallowe’en is their Christmas, if you know what I mean). I’m doing all my last minute shopping there. Here’s what my loved ones can look forward to under the tree this year:

fondue plates

power adaptors for obsolete gadgets

classic tv shows on vhs

inspirational art

decorative souvenir beer steins

and naked barbies by the bagful.

Happy holidays!

CDs of the Week

Yesterday while I was waiting for my prescriptions to be filled I slipped across the street to the Salvation Army store. There were almost no records (where did they all go? Surely no one bought all those religious records and Reader’s Digest box sets), but there was a nice selection of quirky, fairly recent CDs. At $1.99 per, they’re the same price as LPs at Goodwill and Value Village so I can see myself buying more thrift store CDs as the number of LPs I’m interested in continues to dwindle.

1. Jane Siberry: Shushan the Palace (Hymns of Earth)

I love Jane – so flaky, so insanely talented and creative. Maybe you know by now that she changed her name to Issa and divested herself of most of her possessions (are you there Madonna? That’s reinventing yourself). This 2003 album is Siberry’s last under her old name. A Christmas album of sorts, though I didn’t realize it until I read it somewhere. No Santa or chestnuts roasting on an open fire – instead hymns by Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Rossetti, Holst and others. I love Jane’s soaring voice and her slow, wobbly vibrato. After two listens, Jesus Christ The Apple Tree is the track that sticks in my memory: simple and lovely.

Bonus! It’s autographed. If that signature was any more stylized it would be a straight line.

Links: Website, MySpace

2. Various: Christmas Songs

I’ve been searching for this Nettwerk Christmas compilation for years because I need Meryn Cadell’s The Cat Carol for a disc of depressing Christmas tunes I’m putting together for my friends. It may well be the worst tear-jerker of a Christmas song ever: A cat is forgotten outdoors in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. A mouse creeps by, lost in the snow, almost frozen. The cat digs a hole in a snowdrift and curls up with the mouse, keeping it from the cold. Santa comes along and finds the cat frozen to death. He discovers the mouse still alive in the cat’s warm fur. Reindeer weep. Santa commemorates the cat’s sacrifice by turning her into a constellation.

Now I love Meryn Cadell, but I was appalled by this song the first time I heard it on the radio. It’s everything she’s not: mawkish, sentimental, cheap. I think I may be the only person in the world who feels this way – this song is much loved and requested.

Cadell is another peron who has radically reinvented herself; she kept the name but changed genders.

Links: The Cat Carol, blog

3. Aimee Mann: The Forgotten Arm

Aimee Mann is not someone I’ve listened to much (I saw Magnolia, that’s about it). I bought this CD because the packaging is so beautiful (you can do that when CDs are two bucks). Digipacs rule! The booklet looks like a pulp novel from the 40s or 50s with the lyrics of each song laid out like chapters. The gorgeous illustrations are by Owen Smith. It’s a concept album – a musical “novella” about a troubled couple who meet, fall in love and take a road trip across America.

click to enlarge

Also, I was thinking I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas sounded like it might be right for my depressing Christmas comp. Aimee has a Christmas CD (who doesn’t?) but it looks too upbeat for my purposes.

Links: Aimee Mann. Owen Smith, more Owen Smith

Army of Santas