There must be a million items in Jo Parker’s Christmas display located in a downtown building in Eldorado. These include figures, nutcrackers, lighted houses, manger scenes, Christmas art on the walls, holiday items on tables and shelves and a model train that runs around the Christmas tree. She calls it the Polar Express. “This is actually a dream come true,” she says. “I taught music in Eldorado schools for forty-four years and when I got ready to retire my son Shay told me I needed something to do. He got this building for me and now I can continue to share the joys of Christmas.” The building’s door has Christmas decorations painted on it along with the words “Welcome to the Joys of Christmas.” The display is not put away after Christmas. It stays up and is open every weekday all year long. People can go in and see the display in high summer. During Christmas time Jo dresses up like Mrs. Claus and her husband Bob dons a Santa jacket, jeans, boots and a black cowboy hat and calls himself the Texas Santa. He has a beard and looks the part. He tells kids he’s a Santa scout looking for a place to feed the reindeer. He and Jo sit in big chairs near the entrance to welcome visitors. A back wall of the building has an impressive collection of nutcrackers in different sizes. Some play music from The Nutcracker Ballet.
“I have 576 right now.
Many of these are gifts from my students. One is from a student who’s in Germany with the Army and he sent me a nutcracker from over there. I’ve found a few in estate sales. I started collecting these in 2000. I have several things all through the display that play various musical selections. Music is kind of my life.” She teaches piano and plans are to have a piano in the building. She is not sure just how many Santas and snowmen she has. Some are hand-carved antiques. “I have lots and lots of angels. My nativities are probably my favorite. I have over 200 of those. This all started with my mom when I was growing up. She made her own decorations and figures and I have some of them on display. I made some, too. Every square inch of space is used for the display. Shay says they might need to put an addition on the building. He says everywhere a family member goes, they pick up items to add to the collection. “My mom used to have Christmas displays in her classrooms and every year she would add new ones. There were boxes and boxes of them that we went through to set this up. It took a gooseneck trailer to haul the items to this building. School kids and other groups have field trips to come see this collection. “ Jo retired in July of last year. It took from July to December to set up the display. There is no admission charge and nothing is for sale.