Christmas In Philadelphia

Started a sunny, 50-degree day with a run to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session there. I just put DVDs and kids' books away. The kids' books took longer than usual. They just enlarged and completely rearranged the kids' section, so I had to figure out where everything goes again.

I rode straight over to the Collingswood PATCO after leaving the library around 12:30 and hopped a train to 8th and Market Street. I loved my December trips into Center City Philadelphia last year and decided to repeat them.

The Gallery Mall was my first stop. I was dismayed to discover the little Suncoast Video store I'd just bought Plains, Trains, and Automobiles on DVD from last month is shutting down after the holidays. I hope this doesn't mean FYE is shuttering all the remaining Suncoast stores; I'll miss this one, and I'd miss the big one at the Hamilton Mall even more. I have a lot of history with Suncoast. I bought some of the first videos I got with my own money from them in high school, not to mention almost all of my MacDonald/Eddy movies but Maytime and The Girl of the Golden West. When I entered college, I often bought videos there cheap that I couldn't find anywhere else, including Summer Magic, Annie Get Your Gun, The Black Cauldron, and That's Entertainment Part III.

I browsed in Suncoast and the FYE in the mall for a little while (which, BTW, most definitely is not shutting down), but decided there wasn't anything I wanted and headed out to 10th and Market Street. I hiked a few blocks down to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It was about 1:30 by then, and the Market was still really crowded (if not quite as bad as the height of lunch time). I bought a chicken salad wrap from the Down Home Diner and a snickerdoodle from the cookie shop.

Hit Macy's next. I was there just in time to catch the 2PM showing of Macy's Light Show. I saw it last year, and I loved it. Julie Andrews narrates this holiday spectacular in which strings of lights that recreate favorite holiday characters move and dance in time to music and the huge organ housed in the building. The kids and their parents around me were eating it up, and I had a great time. It's not the fanciest effects around, but it still looks awesome with that huge ceiling. I especially love the adorable teddy bear guards and their horns that begin the festivities.

Here's a video of the show on YouTube.

I also decided to try something else this year that I didn't check out last year. I took two escalators to the third floor and made my way through the surprising crowds (on a Tuesday?) to the Holiday Lane Christmas section and the Dickens Village. All of Macy's Christmas items were 50% off, so I bought two adorable gingerbread people who were $2.25 each.

The Dickens' Village is an elaborate walk-through recreation of A Christmas Carol. You get in line and first go past a tree and drawings of Victorian Londan...if you can get past the parents trying to take pictures of their offspring in front of the picture-perfect tree.

You see Charles Dickens next, an Audio-Animatronic-style moving figurine, narrating his classic novella with the very words from the beginning of the book. After you leave Mr. Dickens, you move through recreations of the book done with the same moving figurines and detailed building fronts. While not quite on a level with a Disney theme park, it's still enjoyable to look at and nicely done. The guys in front of me loved the glow-in-the-dark effects with the Ghost of Christmas Future.

I did some actual Christmas shopping after I left the Dickens Village. Headed to the kids' section to find something for my nephew Collyn, who will be turning 1 on Thursday. I wish I'd seen the kids' section last year. It's awesome. Kids' clothes are so cute, especially the girls' stuff. I ended up buying Collyn some bibs; babies always need bibs. I hope they aren't too small for him.

My next stop were my two favorite stores on the Avenue of the Arts section of Broad Street, the huge FYE and Borders across from each other and a block from City Hall. Hit FYE briefly to look at some of the WebKinz items, but I didn't see anything I wanted (and I'll probably be getting WebKinz for Christmas anyway), so I went across the street to Borders. Did much better there; bought a My Little Pony book and a Princess and the Frog Golden Book for my 4-year-old cousin Faith, Transformers and Berenstein Bears books for my 5-year-old nephew Skylar, and a book of party appetizer recipes for Uncle Ken. Stopped at the coffee shop of the second floor for a gingerbread latte...and just to take a load off my tired feet.

The last person on my list was my sister Jessa. I never know what to get a 19-year-old girl for Christmas, so I usually just buy her funky socks, which she loves. I decided to go with a variation on this after hitting the Bath and Body Works at the upscale Liberty Place Mall. I found sleeper socks in nifty colors that are supposed to soothe chapped toes; I just hope they keep her feet warm in cold dorm rooms. I also bought a collapsible tote bag that can be carried in a purse for myself to replace the one that got a hole in it last spring. It's kind of flimsy and I don't know how long it'll last, but the colors are cool.

It was about quarter of 5 by then. I hadn't wanted to be in Philly late this time and get caught in the rush-hour crush, so I just made my way to the 16th and Locust PATCO stop and, for once, took an only partially full train home.

I don't know if I'm just run down or if I've been around too many sick people at work lately, but I've had a massive headache since I've hit the PATCO. I hope it doesn't lead to anything serious. I literally cannot afford to be sick right now or at this time of year.

The weather isn't helping. The clouds had increased all day, though it thankfully didn't get any colder. It's supposed to pour late tonight and early this morning, possibly mixed with rain.