Christmas window displays come alive

Billie, left, and Jim Clinkingbeard are shown in a Living Museum window display with some of the items in storage from their former Family Shoe Store on Main Street, including some of Jim’s shoe-repair equipment and a doll from Billie’s doll collection. The couple opened the store in 1947 and retired in 2014.
Billie, left, and Jim Clinkingbeard are shown in a Living Museum window display with some of the items in storage from their former Family Shoe Store on Main Street, including some of Jim’s shoe-repair equipment and a doll from Billie’s doll collection. The couple opened the store in 1947 and retired in 2014.

— For the past three years, Living Windows Christmas scenes have come to life in storefronts on historic Main Street in Calico Rock.

In past exhibits, hopeful children looked for Santa on “The Night Before Christmas” in one window. In another, greedy Scrooge toted up his profits. Two women baked and cooked in a window while their husbands made wooden toys in the next one. “The Little Drummer Boy” played while, in a nearby window, Mary and Joseph welcomed their baby, Jesus.

The Calico Rock Museum will present the fourth annual Living Windows from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by the Calico Rock and Pineville fire departments’ Parade of Lights at 7 p.m.

“We will have scenes in most of the 23 windows on both sides of Main Street, said Gloria Sanders, museum executive director. “What makes the windows ‘living’ is that people in costumes are acting out each scene. The first year, our theme was ‘A Dickens Old Fashioned Christmas.’ Another year, we did ‘An Ozarks Christmas.’ This year, we’re just letting people do what they want, as long as it has a Christmas or winter theme.

“Individuals and groups have been telling me which window they plan to use, but they’re keeping quiet about what scenes they will be doing. This may be because last year we started having visitors vote for their favorite scene.”

In 2015, the Baptist Youth Angel Choir came in first with its display, the Nutcracker fairy dancers were second, and the woodland-creatures camping scene was third.

“Two years ago, we started the tradition of bringing the Clinkingbeards back to Main Street,” Sanders said. “We will set them up in a scene in a museum window with Jim making shoe repairs and Billie displaying her doll collection.”

In 1947, Jim and Billie Clinkingbeard opened the Family Shoe Store on Main Street. The couple retired in 2014.

“I know Denver Hankins will have another military scene,” Sanders said. “Last year he played a soldier reading a letter from home. The Printing Press Cafe is doing ‘The Grinch.’ Linda Havner has promised a ‘Preparing for Christmas’ scene, and Glenda Hirshberger will again be spinning yarn. And Sherman Anderson will demonstrate how he makes his wooden tops. We’ve added more lighting to the street. Patty Sanders and her church group will be caroling.”

In 2013, Kim Meierdirk, owner of Wagon Wheel Antiques and Gifts, proposed the living Windows idea.

“I had seen a Living Windows program in Portage, Wisconsin,” she said. “We Main Street merchants were looking for something to do so children could experience an old-fashioned Christmas.”

Two days before the event, a storm covered the sidewalks with several inches of ice and snow.

“The inmates from the North Central Unit prison [in Calico Rock] came to our rescue,” she said. “They were shoveling snow and breaking up ice almost until we were ready to start.”

The Peppersauce Players little-theater group has sponsored several window scenes.

“For the Clinkingbeards windows, we used shelving and other items they had in storage,” said Fredericka Johns, Peppersauce Players president. “We hung curtains across the back and sides so you wouldn’t see the store interior. Some of our costumes came from things we’d been collecting for the Peppersauce Players. At the time, my husband, Tom, was very sick. A man we met at the hospital made the top hat for Scrooge.”

The museum and the Wagon Wheel lend out items for props. People sew their own costumes or wear thrift-store finds.

“My husband, Roy, came up with the idea for the ice-fishing scene,” Kim Meierdirk said. “He made some wooden fish and painted them. The kids really liked it. One year, a little boy was crying because he wanted one of those fish. My husband was playing the fisherman. He climbed down, disconnected a fish and gave it to the boy.”

For several years, the 20/20 Group has been decorating Main Street for Christmas. This year the group purchased new lights, garlands and wreaths.

“The Main Street Pocket Park will have a lighted arbor and trees lit up,” member Lori Tibbitts said.

“On the high side of the street, we’ve wrapped the railings with lighted garlands and covered two arches with lighted garlands and wreaths. On the lower side, we have strings of lights along the awnings,” Tibbitts said.

“The Parade of Lights will travel down Main Street and up [Arkansas] Highway 56 to the Calico Rock Fire Station,” Pineville Fire Chief Mike Stephen said.

“We’ll drop off Santa so he can visit with the children. Both departments have two fire engines with lights that blink in time to the music. Some organizations and churches will have floats,” Stephen said.

“That evening, it’s a real community gathering,” Sanders said. “Visitors come from Ash Flat, Cherokee Village, Mountain Home, Mountain View and other communities, as well as our Calico Rock residents. I’ve been told some families who have relatives visiting for Christmas are inviting them for our Living Windows weekend.”

Sanders estimated that about 500 people attended the event last year.

For more information on Living Windows, call (870) 297-6100 or visit www.calicorockmuseum.com/events.html. The Calico Rock Museum is at 104 Main St. (Arkansas 5 at the White River Bridge).

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