Castle Noel -- The Streets of New York

Mark Klaus and his wife Dana have made several trips to New York to secure quite a collection of window displays from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylors. In one room set up like a small theater, we watched a movie that showed the tremendous effort it took to box everything and load it into a truck to bring it to Ohio.


I found out later that Klaus had even made a trip when he had to travel prone in a vehicle because of some physical problems he was having. He was determined though to add to his collection. His love of Christmas and wanting to share the memories knows no bounds, I guess.


The series of windows that feature the story of the Nutcracker are amazing. The costuming and details of the characters and the setting are beyond description. Other windows included a fancy glittered shoes display and several deliciously displayed cakes, cookies and candies.


We were gathered into another theater venue and watched a crazy video of Klaus lip syncing "Let It Go" from the frozen movie as he was pictured in many of the places in the museum we had visited. At one point, it snowed in the theater to the delight of young and old--especially since it wasn't cold and it melted quickly.


One of the other amazing places we were led through was a large room where many of the things not yet put into displays were stored including, to my delight, the toy soldiers featured in the Santa Clause 2 movie.


Nearing the two hour mark in our tour, we paused before two huge doors and were told on the other side was the Grand Hall. With a little fanfare, the doors opened automatically and we were ushered into a wondrous huge hall that featured many of the things from the How The Grinch Stole Christmas movie.





The climax of our tour was Santa's mountain at the end of the hall. It was recreated by Klaus from the A Christmas Story movie. And yes, the slide was included. Santa waved to us from the top and we were all separated into families or groups to climb the stairs for a picture with Santa and then to take a trip down the slide. I made my husband and son go first because I knew I would need help getting up after the trip.




I took off my jacket (none are allowed on the slide to avoid metal scratching the sides) and placed it along with my purse between my feet that were tucked into the pocket of the  felt sack that I sat on. With a little scoot, I took off down the slide, screaming all the way. It was a thrill and yes, I felt like a kid again even when they helped me to my feet.



Pictures were available to purchase on our way out from our slide experience. Thankfully, no one bought the one with my mouth wide open as I sped down the red slide.


We explored the gift shop a bit and walked out into a beautiful fall day, feeling good about our trip back through Christmas past and looking forward to Christmas present.

 [For tickets and information go to the Castle Noel website]