Holiday

[qvcfreak]

Sounds beautiful @gardenman I can’t wait to see pics.

I’m anxious to put mine up but I wait every year for the day after Thanksgiving.  

[gardenman]

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@PA Mom-mom wrote:

@gardenman  Oh my! I have not heard of Gaudio's for many years! They were so great!

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Yeah, they were a fantastic store. Most of my Christmas stores are gone these days. Strawbridges used to have the best ornaments with a buyer who traveled all over Europe looking for the best stuff. Gaudio's was fantastic. There were also great graden centers/Christmas stores in Vineland and Pleasantville. They're all gone now. Pity!

[haddon9]

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@gardenman wrote:

Getting my tree up and fully decorated is a multi-day process, but if I start Monday I should be able to have it up and decorated by Wednesday or Thursday, then I'll do the other interior decorating and then do the outside stuff the following Monday or Tuesday. That'll give me a bit over a full month to enjoy it all.

I haven't bought any new ornaments but I did buy a new rotating tree stand. My old one was getting a bit iffy towards the end of last season and Amazon had a nice one with a metal frame at a pretty good price. ($110 for the brown color and frankly I don't care what color it is.) I'll have to see how that works. I've got a spare smart plug that I'll use on the tree so anytime I want to see the tree lit all I'll have to do is say, "Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree."

Step one is obviously clearing out the corner where the tree goes. Then I hang up a couple of crumpled up heat mirror blankets behind it to serve as reflectors. (Kind of gives that corner the old lightbox look from the disco days as the tree rotates and the multicolor lights hit the crumpled up areas.) The blankets are made of gold mylar and when crumpled form a gazillion wrinkles that reflect light everywhere. They're hung flat against the wall but retain the crumples. I like the look. 

We used to have a chain of garden/Christmas shops called Gaudios and they had a Christmas tree showroom that was lined with mirrors all around. It was like you were in a forest of Christmas trees. The only light came from the trees and with mirrors behind them on both sides of the aisle you were walking through, it became a jungle of beautiful Christmas trees even though they only had maybe twelve or so trees on display. There were reflections to the left of you, to the right of you, behind you, ahead of you. It was neat. If they had the overhead lights on you lost that illusion, but with just the trees lit, it was impressive. 

I think the new tree stand rotates both directions which is kind of neat. My older ones only rotated one way. It made decorating the tree easy as you just stood there while the tree revolved to put the beads on. But then taking them off was more challenging as the tree was still going the one way. Being able to reverse it should make undecorating the tree easier. I'll start finding out more about it come Monday. It should be fun.

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@gardenman When my kids were little we lived in south Jersey and I would take them to Gaudios (was it also The G Boys?) for a holiday treat!  They loved it there and I can remember the mirrored hall with trees....it was so beautiful and enchanting for the tots!  Lovely & warm memories!

Good luck decorating your tree!  We plan on doing it over Thanksgiving weekend...we still have a million leaves to pick up...I'm going to talk DH into have this done for us next year.  Each year the task becomes more daunting and overwhelming as the trees grow larger.

ETA:  There is a garden center called Feeney's in Feasterville, PA that also does an amazing holiday display...very beautiful!

[gardenman]

@haddon9 

The G Boys were still around until 2012, but then they went under. McNaughton nursery in Cherry Hill bought their animation display and had it set up last year. I may to check them out if I'm in the Cherry Hill area before Christmas.

[haddon9]

@gardenman  Though I'm a native New Yorker, I really grew up in Cherry Hill...my family bought a house there in 1965 and it's certainly come a long way from the open spaces to what is now almost a city!...so built up but I miss parts of it.

[gardenman]

@haddon9 

I was born in 1958 and for most of my youth, Cherry Hill was the shopping/entertainment hub for South/Central New Jersey. If you needed to do some shopping it was off to the Cherry Hill Mall. (Assuming you didn't want to go to the department stores, Gimbels, Lits, Wanamakers, or Strawbridge's, in Philly.) I used to love the aviary they had in the mall filled with exotic birds. You also had the Ellisburg Shopping center if you couldn't find anything at the mall. If you wanted to impress someone, you took them to the Garden State Park race track and then the nearby Latin Casino for high-end food and entertainment. As a kid, I loved the old Steer Inn fast-food joint near the Airport Circle. There was a small pet shop named Tisa's on route 38 that sold wonderful tropical fish. I spent a lot of money (well, it was a lot of money to me at the time anyway) there in my youth. For a while the Crazy Eddies chain had a store just north of the mall that I'd visit when I needed some music.

TImes changed though. Deptford started to build up and intercept the South Jersey shoppers heading to Cherry Hill. Deptford's now largely the shopping hub of South Jersey. The casinos arrived in Atlantic City and became the entertainment magnet. The Latin Casino went through some changes before kicking the bucket. (It became something of an all-purpose nightclub for a bit with theme nights including a vampire-themed night that a cute little Italian phlebotomist from South Philly who worked at Cooper Hospital used to enjoy. She's probably a grandma now though.) You also had the Hawaiian Cottage, the Rickshaw Inn, and the Cherry Hill Inn, all gone now.

The Cherry Hill Mall got surrounded by the Deptford Mall, Echelon Mall, Moorestown Mall, and customers who would drive all the way to Cherry Hill then started stopping short at the other malls. The old Two Guys store on route 38 was fun. They've been gone forever though. Martin's Aquarium (of Jenkintown) opened a second location in Cherry Hill (probably after you left) that was quite popular for tropical fish fans. But they're gone, as is the Atlantic Book Warehouse where I spent a lot of money.

I don't think I've been to Cherry Hill Mall in maybe twenty years. Tisa's pet shop is long gone. The Latin Casino is but a memory. Garden State Park is now a new shopping center with a Whole Foods in it. Cherry Hill has gone from being a destination to just another South Jersey town. A very nice South Jersey town, but it's not what it used to be. The mall could be in some trouble as the mall owner has been losing money. The last time I was in Cherry Hill was probably ten years to see my old hematologist who had an office on route 70. I saw him there for about ten years from 2000-2010 before he retired. Even then I seldom ventured far from route 70 and would more stop in Deptford on my way back. 

It doesn't seem that long ago that the racetrack and Latin Casino were there and the mall was busy, but sadly it was a while now. Times change. The arrival of the casinos largely killed the entertainment sector in Cherry Hill and the surrounding of the mall by other malls intercepted much of the Cherry Hill Mall's traffic. I do remember how it was once though. Cherry Hill was a destination, now it's just another town. Pity.

[ladycos]

@gardenman 

please post pictures for us. It sounds so beautiful and inspiring!

I'm starting Monday myself,  I'm really excited to get my tree up this year.  Took all the inside fall decor down yesterday. 

I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving but I feel like the time is flying by and it's a lot of work just to enjoy for a such a short time. 

[haddon9]

@gardenman I'm just a few years older than you & I remember all of those places you mentioned!!... The Hawaiian Cottage, Cherry Hill Inn, Rickshaw Inn and of course the Lating Casino!  I even think I might remember Tisa's.

I can remember going to the original Garden State racetrack when it still had wooden stands....and I can remember seeing the smoke from a distance when it burned down.  When the new modern racetrack was built (which is now the shopping center) I took the kids when they were 3 & 5 Years old on a behind the scenes tour to see the horses.

It's too bad all of those places are now long gone!  Speaking of which when I first learned to drive my driving instructor took me around Ellisburg Circle on my first time out!  ...can you imagine?! I was shocked when I went back about 6 years ago.  I knew that Ellisburg had been redesigned and they took the circle out but it was so congested and built up I almost didn't recognize it!  However at the time Ponzio's right off of Ellisburg was still standing.

My DH worked at RCA in Camden back in the late 70s & through the 80s.  We went to The Pub for a reunion with some of his old coworkers 6 years ago.  The Airport Circle was still standing and what a mess that is!

...old memories....I loved the Cherry Hill Mall growing up and then taking the kids when they were young.   Loved the birds in the court area right by Strawbridges (I even worked there one summer).   My local mall is now Oxford Valley and it's kind of a depressing mall.  I never go.

I love living in Bucks Co, PA now but I do miss some of the old south Jersey that I grew up with.

[gardenman]

@haddon9 

Of the South Jersey cities, Cherry Hill may have changed the most. Camden is still Camden. Woodbury is still Woodbury. Deptford's grown up quite a bit, but is still pretty recognizable. Cherry Hill has lost a ton of landmarks and history though. My local towns of Salem and Pennsville have lost most of their industry but are otherwise unchanged. Haddonfield has become something of a trendy boutique town, but it's still Haddonfield. Cherry Hill may have changed the most over my lifetime. (If you ignore Atlantic City anyway. Atlantic City is on a whole different scale of change.) I miss the old Cherry Hill.

[haddon9]

@gardenman Yes I miss the old Cherry Hill too...too many changes in too many places!