The letdown

When we lived in Ohio, it was tradition to take the kids downtown Cleveland at Christmas time. We parked at the airport and hopped on the RTA (rapid train), which took us straight into Tower City mall. This mall is located inside the Terminal Tower, which was once the tallest building in Cleveland. The Rapid trains run under and through this building.


Riding the Rapid was always a big treat for our children. They loved watching the landscape go from almost burbs to urban life.
The many industrial buildings.
Impressive old apartments.
Rows of narrow homes on equally narrow lots (Think A Christmas Story, which was filmed there, btw.)
Graffiti (which is an artform of sorts.)
Bridges over the Cuyahoga River.
And of course, the city itself.

From the mall, we enjoyed walking out onto the square to see the festive light display (In fact, Carl and I went to the lighting one year, but that was a lesson in the property of density which I do not care to repeat. Thousands of people crammed against thousands of people, all shoving one another vying for a spot in which to take in the big flip of the switch. Just what were we thinking?) Even so, the lights were spectacular.

(That's the Terminal Tower illuminated in red.)

The decorations inside Tower City were equally delightful. Colorful and decorative air balloons extended above the three-story mall. Carolers in Victorian era costumes interacting with and performing for the public. Oh, and the talking Christmas tree.

(the oval is a decorative fountain whose water jets "perform" in perfect time with lights and music.)

And then there was the very cool toy soldier. He was "wound up" (had a huge key on his back) and came to life several times each day. And he would present some of the children with a paper ornament signed by him. Olivia giggled shyly when she was once selected for the honor.


(You can see a much better photo of him here.)

And perhaps one of the most magical experiences of this annual family outing was the Twigbee shop, where children ages 12 and under got to enter through a child-sized doorway into a tiny world of gifts for $10 and under, Olivia's chance to do some "grown up" shopping for her Nana and Papa. How she loved to do that.

Our trip always concluded with a stop at the bulk candy store, where the kids got to select a few of their favorites for the ride home. Ah, lovely journey down memory lane.

So...

Imagine our expectations as we ventured into downtown Indy this past week. Their "Tower City" is known as Circle Center mall. We just knew we were in for a treat. After all, Indianapolis is a really nice American city. It's quite clean. Easy to get around. And our Children's Museum is perhaps the best in the country. During Christmas, a giant slide form is placed over the wide curved staircase at the Children's Museum and kids (and parents too!) can ride down on a burlap sack. How cool is that? So we were sure our visit to Circle Center was going to be something special.



I mentioned A Christmas Story. Uh, did you see it? If so, remember the scene where Ralphie is holed up in the bathroom, breaking a sweat as he uses his Ovaltine decoder ring to reveal the secret message?

REMEMBER TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE.

"A crummy commercial?" That was his disappointed response. Yeah, well, life does sometimes imitate art. And such was the case with our holiday venture downtown.
An absolute bust! It was a big hunk of ghouda, I tell you. Oh sure, there were some Victorian looking banners and giant ornaments suspended from the ceiling. But they were quite neutral and didn't really remind us all that much of Christmas.

Now don't get me wrong. It's not about the hyped up commercial "stuff." I totally know that. I don't need it and it wouldn't bother one little iota me if the whole world toned down the commercial aspects of Christmas. But people, it was a mall for crying out loud. The heartbeat of commercialism. So we expected it to be all tricked out with holiday garb. Nope! And that is an understatement. We struggled just to find a place that could serve as a holiday photo op. We had to duck inside a department store just to find some decorated trees. Sheesh!

Now, here's the neat thing though. In spite of our expectations being shot down like a duck's behind in huckleberry season, there was one BEAUTIFUL sight to behold. In the very center of the city, on THE circle that folks drive in at night to see (due to the "tree" made out of strings of lights. That's right, not a REAL tree but a string of lights tree)...what can be found?



THE NATIVITY! A fairly large nativity at that. It just so happens that a CHURCH sits right on the circle and thus they have opportunity to freely display a very large nativity in the most prominent spot in downtown Indianapolis. And it stands out tremendously due to the understated decorating all around it. How beautiful is that? I knoOow!

Toni