 Welcome to the Chavoygan County Historical Museum and our 2019 Holiday Memories exhibit, subtitled, Season's Greetings. We're so pleased to be able to offer every year, this step back in time, to the days of the H.C. Prangie Company and the decorated mechanical window displays of years past. Every year, visitors are greeted when they come down our main staircase to a scene that is right out of a window display. We've tried to recreate one of the large display windows that have been down at the Prangie's Company. This year, we feature Santa and Mrs. Claus having their photograph taken by an elf and in fact, our visitors can even help to take that photograph. We ask them to push the button, count to three, and there it goes. And it's so quick, it's like a Polaroid. This would be typical of a space that would have been seen at Prangie's during the 50s, 60s and into the 1970s with displays of various animation and occasionally an extra product that might be the hot toy of the season. This year, it's sock monkeys, getting into their typical mischief. Every year, the museum has a slightly different display. This setup is one that we now use in alternating years. It's the most recent set of animation that came here to the historical museum. Prangie started with window displays at the holidays, most likely shortly after they built their new building in 1923. The four-story building featured a number of really fantastic display opportunities in the front windows with at least 21 plate glass windows on both 8th Street and on Wisconsin. Over the years, they would slowly transition from having primarily Christmas merchandise to including bits and pieces of animation in their displays. The only time this took a break was during World War II, when energy conservation and additional materials went to the war effort as opposed to creating new displays. What we see here is a gift wrapping machine. The idea is that once the elves had made the different products for Santa, they would send it through this machine and it would be gift wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree. Of course, every once in a while, one of the elves got into a little mischief and tried to see if they too could be gift wrapped. Looks like that gift wrapping idea for an elf didn't work out so well and has jammed up the conveyor belt. Hopefully the elves can slide on over and fix it and get things working again. In Halloween World War II, H.C. Pringies continued the tradition of the animated mechanical window displays and in fact, in many ways, that became the primary attraction of their holiday windows. For the 50s, the 1950s and the 1960s, every year there was a new display, sometimes that had just been the year or two before, out on the east coast at the likes of Macy's or down in Chicago at Marshall Fields. These animated window displays would travel from store to store and often times after they appeared at the Pringies in Sheboygan, they might move on to the Green Bay, the Sturgeon Bay or the Appleton store to spread the holiday cheer. This tradition did continue through the 1970s even as additional attractions were added inside of the store, including Bruce the Spruce and an enchanted forest that visitors would walk through when they went to see Santa. Following the fire in the 1980s and the rebuilding of the Pringies store, the focus really became internal even though they continued to have small displays in street side windows. Interestingly enough, this setup came to the Yonkers store in 1996, following being purchased the HC Pringies in downtown became a Yonkers. The corporate headquarters had had this display for a couple of years in their flagship store in Des Moines, Iowa, but it wasn't the attraction they hoped it would be and store managers here advocated for it to come to Sheboygan because the tradition of the animation was strong in this area. It remained at the store until it closed in 2013. The museum began celebrating the tradition of the mechanical window displays of Pringies in 2001. Over the years we were able to acquire animation not only from the former store when it was under the Yonkers in Boston store ownership, but also from a private collector with support from many of the members of the historical society. We also are able to do this display every year thanks to the generous support of volunteers who have done everything from making all of the sock monkeys that we see this year as part of the display to helping with the mechanics and making sure things stay operating, decorating the Taylor House, decorating the main exhibit and helping to assemble the displays. Most of them are even kind enough to come back and help us tear them down, which is awesome. Every year the displays are slightly different. So they're up only for a limited time and they'll never look exactly the same again. This nativity is also original to the H.C. Prangie Company. From research we've uncovered that it appeared in 1939 and memories that have been shared with us indicate that every year right before Christmas the main window would be switched out to this display. The pieces are made out of plaster and several years ago underwent extensive restoration thanks to the support of Dan Merkel and his family. Many of them needed cleaning and several needed repairs, both structural and surface repairs to their paint, understandable after so many years of annual use. We love having it in this window because it harkens back to those days of standing out in front of the store, watching and seeing the displays. Of course the bonus here is that it's warm inside, it's not snowing or raining, and the wind isn't nipping at your nose. The display here at the museum is about more than just the animation, even though that's a key part. We're always excited to have additional decorations, particularly these community trees, that are done by various groups and organizations throughout the area. One of the trees this year was decorated by SCADA, the Sheboygan County Area Retired Teachers Association. Here you see that they've decorated their tree with all kinds of school supplies, which following the holiday memories season will be donated to area schools for use in their classrooms. Another tree was decorated by BSA Troops 6000 and 1. Their feature ornament is pine cones that have googly eyes and happy faces, harkening to their theme, making memories with nature. Interestingly enough, this is the first Scouts BSA troop of girls here in Sheboygan. The troop consists of 6th, 7th and 8th grade ladies, and they have had a fantastic first six months. This tree, decorated by Cub Scout Pack 3858, is celebrating making memories with the Pinewood Derby, an event that's been part of Cub Scouts since 1953. In addition to featuring Pinewood Derby badges and little cars, the tree also has on necker shift slides that members of the pack who are in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade will wear come February when they race their Pinewood cars. Students in grades 9 through 12 from Central High School created the ornaments on this tree that we have on display. It celebrates the 12 days of Christmas, in addition to having some hand-designed geometric snowflakes. The students use 3D printing, laser cutting and AutoCAD to help create their ornaments, giving back to the community and having pride in this tree and the school. Students from Bethlehem Lutheran School used a common greeting to create their season's greetings tree. They used their hands, a popular way of expressing a hello, to create the various ornaments on this tree. Ornaments were made by students in 5K, 1st, 2nd and 4th grade. Here we have a tree that's been decorated by students at St. John the Baptist Catholic School. Children in 3rd graders created many of the old-fashioned ornaments hanging on the tree. It also features some beeswax ornaments made by Margie Seifert, who volunteers here pretty regularly at the museum and also is the great-grandmother of one of the school's 3rd graders. We see things from ornaments with music notes to trees made out of hand-tied strips of fabric. And mittens, highly decorated. Members of Sheboygan County's Wise Wizards 4-H group created a season's greetings tree with the theme, Go More Green. The club decided to have a green tree and utilized recycled media to create ornaments, popcorn strands and also was able to reuse ornaments from previous years when they've had a tree here on display at the museum. They also painted the inside of a clear ornament to create a new display as well. This tree, decorated by 3rd graders at Usberg Christian School, celebrates Christmas around the world with a variety of greetings in other languages. The 3rd graders help decorate these ornaments with their grandparents on Grandparents Day during school. During the holiday season, the museum also decorates the Taylor House and the log cabin to go along with the theme. This year we've carried the season's greetings theme right on through and in the Taylor House all the decorations center around Christmas greetings and holiday cards that are sent for the last 50 years. In fact, most of these cards have been donated to the Historical Museum specifically for the purposes of this exhibit and a large number of them were given to us by Henry and Eleanor Young who had been keeping their greetings for a number of years. Each different area will have a different set of greeting cards to remind us of all the various ways that we wish each other well during the holidays. These buildings wouldn't be possible without the help of our volunteers and particularly here in the Taylor House. We're grateful to members of the Ivy League Garden Club and Lakeshore Garden Club. It is their efforts that make sure that this home is beautifully decorated year after year. They are amazing when they come in and can put up these decorations in a few short hours. Hey everybody, it's your favorite tree, Bruce the Spruce. We are hoping to see all of you here at the museum in 2019 for our season's greeting holiday memory event. Please come in and say hi to me. I got some special jokes for you. You can see all our elves working hard in their workshop and you can visit with our pal Santa Claus up until Christmas Eve. Hope to see you all this holiday season. Have fun and see you soon.