Advent Ornament 23: Carolers

My grandmother, Lillian Wilkerson Shaw, loved Christmas. She lit up her little Main Street cotton-mill-town house every December with Christmas decorations. During her last few years Sheila and I had the opportunity a couple of times to help her haul in the lights and ornaments and other decorations from the rafters of the garage and deploy them, under her strict oversight, to the inside and outside of the house.

These three-foot tall plastic carolers always stood on one side of her front porch. A plastic Holy Family occupied the other side. When "Mama Shaw" died at 91 in 1993, I inherited the carolers and a few other decorations. I suppose they are a little tacky, but they are dear to my childhood and we are proud to plug in near our front door.

I'm not sure of the origins of the mouse carolers, but they have been around for many years.

These small china carolers also came from Mama Shaw.