no parents allowed….

Last week I started at Macy’s–at midnight on black friday in women’s shoes. Yes, it was insane. Yes, I missed out on being insanely merry [tipsy] on Thanks Giving but I also had to take my grandparents home so it wasn’t a big deal. Yes, I sat in Starbucks at 5am wondering how I was going to get through my last 4 hours of a 10 hour shift. No, I did not cry but I was close. Allinall I really like and am extremely excited to work at Macy’s during the holidays.

You see Macy’s is big on Christmas and I love it. Most adults get a wee bit cranky and frustrated but I love the lights, the music (especially this), the people, the cookies, the variety of traditions. It makes me smile. In fact the more grouchy others get, the larger my smile becomes. I frikin’ love it.

There is a video below that explains why I have an extra soft spot for Macy’s downtown. It features in my most prominent positive holiday experience. Macy’s used to be Meier and Frank and it used to have the best kid holiday land ever with no parents allowed.

Kids, and parents, would come from all over the Northwest every year for this Santa Land. You would climb up the stairs and board a tiny monorail WITHOUT your parents and off you go! You would tour the outer room–usually while punching and kicking your brother with newfound freedom–and wave at your parents below. Then you entered a secret tunnel.

This tunnel [hole in the wall] led to a Santa land that was so amazing and unimaginable that I lost memory of it was an adult. I get a feeling of snowflakes and glitter and miniatures below when I think of it. Its like that Christmas book about the kid who goes to Santa land on a train and gets a bell from a reindeer but then as he grows up he can’t hear it anymore. All I know is every kid would stop kicking their sibling, become silent, and just stare down in amazement. It was magic and a place parents would never see. It was so very special.

Both my brother and I got to go into Santa Land; as did my niece and nephew. It will be a hard search for something just a great for my someday-kids.

Below is a video of the monorail going through the outside area above the parents. It was the last trip in 2005 before Meier and Frank remodeled and became Macy’s. I guess letting a bunch of kids loose on a monorail isn’t safe so they shut it down.