Touring Castle Noel -- Oh The Nostalgia

Our tour of Castle Noel in Medina, Ohio, continued inside after our visit with Cousin Eddie's RV from Christmas Vacation. Our group of twelve squeezed into a small two story foyer area and looked up at a giant clock that displayed animals as it chimed.


We lingered a bit in a long hallway lined with autographed pictures of stars from Christmas movies and artists who performed Christmas music. Once through the hallway, we began to experience the magic of seeing some of the sets used in animated Christmas movies and a few window displays from NYC.


Then it was time to go through the vortex. As the story went, once we passed through the vortex we would be children again, returning to the age of ten. There were two kids with our group and the young boy turned to his mom and said, "But Mom, I'm ten now. What's going to happen to me?"


I'm not sure how his mom explained it but once we had navigated the spinning environment, holding tight to the rails because the tunnel that was spinning put your equilibrium off, he was still ten years old. The rest of us however were transported back to our childhood or at least to remembering the toys we'd given our kids.

Several showcases exhibited all sorts of toys mostly from the sixties and seventies. One showcase held the track for Hot Wheels cars that is exactly like the one (of three) that we have in our toy closet for the grandkids. It was the favorite of the son who was with us. I wondered if he felt ten or just felt old looking at his favorite toy in a museum.


We moved on to see several showcases with costumes from some of the famous Christmas movies. I recognized the robe worn by the ghost of Christmas present and of course the costume worn by Buddy the Elf. I didn't know that there was another costume worn by Buddy though. There was a purple outfit that was worn in a scene that was cut from the movie.


Eventually we came to an area known as the Santa training ground. It looked a bit like being under an over-decorated Christmas tree but in the center of the passageway were two stone walls made to look a bit like a chimney might if cut in half and the middle of it was padded with inflatable red cushions that made it a tight squeeze to get through--like the feeling Santa might have going down the chimney.


Well trained, we were now on our way to the streets of New York to view the Christmas display windows.