Christmas Past

Modern Christmas has a symbiotic relationship with commercial businesses.  Portland is no exception to this rule. Meier & Frank and now Nob Hill Christmas would host Santa Land, and opposite Lipman Wolfe’s and now the (Portland Spirit) hosted Cinnamon Bear.  Alpenrose Dairy created Storybook Lane at Lloyd Center and later created Dairy Ville and moved Storybook lane there along with several expansions to their Christmas offerings.  The (Daylight 4449) steam locomotive now lives at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center who provide Holiday Express rides each year.  There is so much more to Portland’s Christmas Past and it all needs to be preserved and kept fully available for Children to enjoy each Christmas.

Nob Hill Christmas preserves historic Portland Christmas displays from the past.  We put these pieces back in to business windows free for everyone to enjoy, read more information below and look at the map at the bottom of the page for where you can find displays around town.

Our North West Portland faculty is where we store and restore these displays.  We host two events each year for the public to come in.  Christmas in Summer is the last weekend in June and then starting the Friday before Thanksgiving though Christmas Eve we are open for our annual Christmas Tree Market and Santa Land is open free of charge to visit.  Window Displays are marked on the map below and are out during the Christmas season from around Thanksgiving thru Christmas.

We currently have in the collection items from Alpenrose Dairy; Dairy Ville, Storybook Lane, Circus Wagons, & the Opera House. Meier & Frank window displays, 12 Days of Christmas and 2 modern “Carolers” & “Nutcracker”, Santa's Sleigh from TV show the Librarians, numerous animatronic elves from other past department store displays, and a late 1800’s Horse Drawn Wagon from a wagon builder in Idaho.

Using a combination of old displays and new construction we have added to Santa Land, the Reindeer House, Santa's Chair with snowflake backdrop, O scale polar express train, N scale train built by Portland Area N-Trak model railroaders, and Tualatin Valley Model Railroad Club  “Blitzen" window display, "Santas Workshop” window display,

We are always looking for more to add to the collection, either more from Portland or more from other Department Stores.  Let us know if you know of any forgotten Christmas past or would like to help us with the restoration efforts. You can also help by clicking this link to help us cover expenses that the annual Holiday Market does not cover.