Have a Very Vintage Christmas With Affordable Collectibles!

Are you looking for one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts that are not off the rack specials from the local Big Box store? But do you worry that the cost will be beyond your budget?

Look no further than the Dec. 8 Christmas Collectorama show at the Catherine Hickman Theater in Gulfport, featuring some vintage items that won't break the bank. The fun starts at 10 a.m.

Here are the details:

Winter weather elsewhere may be frightful, but in Florida it can be SO delightful, especially when enjoying an antiques and collectibles show highlighting vintage Christmas décor and memorabilia!  The “Christmas Collecto-Rama…A Santa-Comes-to-the-South Holiday Antique Show” is the Sunshine State’s ONLY show of exclusively vintage holiday décor and retro Christmas fun, including lectures and oldie holiday flicks, with a cash bar and retro tunes throughout the day to help keep everyone in a jolly mood.  Fa la la la la!  So start singing “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…” It won’t do much good for us Floridians, but it’ll help put us in the holiday mood.  Then again, who says you need snow when you have this vintage holiday show?!

Special Features:

●  Exhibitors selling everything from vintage Christmas ornaments, décor and ephemera to old aluminum trees and candy containers, even electric light-up Yule logs, as well as vintage games and toys from Christmases of long ago! Look for vintage Santas, angels, elves and ornaments galore!

●  Take a break from your holiday shopping and enjoy a lecture and slide presentation in the Hickman’s state-of-the-art 175-seat theater on “Collecting Christmas” by Cory Adams, a long-time collector and member of The Golden Glow of Christmas Past club.  Mr. Adams has been an avid collector of vintage Christmas for over a decade.  His personal collection consists of over two hundred figural glass ornaments dating before World War I, over five hundred Shiny Brite ornaments, many silver aluminum trees, plastic novelties and over fifty glass fair lights.  His presentation during the Christmas Collecto-Rama will include the beginnings of Christmas, collecting antique ornaments, and how to determine reproduction items that are sometimes mistaken for vintage.

●  Another special feature will be a presentation on “Antique Mechanical Toys for Christmas” by Dr. Gary Moss, an avid collector-dealer of antique toys and mechanical banks for nearly 40 years. Dr. Gary L. Moss, OD, MBA was an associate professor at The New England College of Optometry in Boston, MA for nearly 30 years before retiring to Florida. He has been an active antiques dealer-collector since 1974, currently exhibiting at over a dozen shows a year in PA, MA & FL. He is the former owner of Kenmore Cards, a sports memorabilia store 2 blocks from Fenway Park in Boston. His book, Hippie Artifacts, was published in 2003 by Schiffer Publishing. His 300 plus 1930-40’s vintage Hawaiian shirt collection was on exhibit in 2004 at the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA for 6 months and is the subject of the book Hawaiian Shirts: Dress for Paradise.  Dr. Moss will be exhibiting and selling from his personal collection of toys.

Admission: $5.00 all ages includes lectures and movie; FREE on-street parking.

Information: For information, call 727-421-0441, visit http://www.hulahula.biz/hulahulaantiqueshows/120812christ... or email ChristmasCollectoRama@tampabay.rr.com