DECATUR — The holidays may be over, but that hasn’t stopped Christmas shoppers.
With the holiday landing on a Friday, that left the rest of the weekend for shoppers to to snatch up the bargains on holiday items for use next year, even before the Christmas tree was taken down.
Now living in Chicago, Miranda Archer, 26, returned to Decatur for a family holiday.
She and her grandma took a trip to a local department store on Sunday knowing they could find at least one holiday bargain.
“I was looking for tissue paper,” Archer’s grandma Linda Gross said.
“I didn’t plan on buying anything,” Archer said.
Decatur resident Linda Gross, left, and her granddaughter, Miranda Archer, inventory their selection of Christmas items the weekend after the holiday.
After finding their way to the holiday section of the store, their shopping cart was beginning to fill with items appropriate for next year. Wrapping paper, gift bags and the needed tissue paper were easily found. Others items were already gone or in limited supply. Christmas lights, garland and wreaths were hard to find.
“There’s good stuff,” Archer said. “Good enough, at least.”
Katelyn Tillman, 22, and her roommate Jenna Smith, 24, searched the Christmas aisles of another store on Sunday. “We haven’t found much, but the little things that we needed,” Tillman said. “The sales are good, so I expect it to be empty.”
Like many after-Christmas shoppers, they found the holiday areas and shelves of local stores were already barren.
Katelyn Tillman, from Decatur, studies the selection of candy in a department store Christmas aisle.
“There’s still name-brand candy,” Smith said. “More than I thought there would be.”
The two were able to find a couple of ornaments for next year’s tree, although that particular selection was sparse. “We always need that,” Tillman said about her find.
The decorations in their home were minimal, according to the ladies. “Just because we work a lot,” Smith said.
With social distancing, this year was celebrated differently for Smith and Tillman and families living far away. Since the holiday decorations were limited and celebrations were distant, they attempted to continue the festivities during their shopping spree.
“We’re not missing out. We’re just getting extra stuff we probably didn’t need,” Tillman said. “This is the best deals. Might as well buy it now.”
“Probably yesterday would have been a little bit better,” Smith said about the supply.
According to many of the employees, stores were busy, filled with shoppers the day after Christmas. Gross and her granddaughter knew to wait for their shopping.
“I didn’t come the day after,” Gross said on Sunday. “That would have been a madhouse.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Decatur Christmas decorations of the past
Bob and Nellie Blair
1988: The Bob and Nellie Blair residence sparkles at 522 Ridge Ave. on the city's east side.
Santa Claus
1988: Preston Nash, a park district worker, helps carry a 25-foot Santa Claus statue to its perch atop the tortoise and wallaby house at Scovill Children's Zoo Wednesday. The Santa will be part of a Christmastime at the Zoo feature scheduled from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. nightly at the zoo Dec. 17-23 and 26-30. The zoo grounds will be lighted by 43,000 Christmas tree lights for the event.
Plugging Santa in
1988: Electricity has done more to brighten Santa's image than anything. All over town, electrified Christmas displays are beginning to light up homes and businesses. Here, a worker puts up Santa's face on the Atlas Travel Building, 239 S. Main St.
Window display
1980: Christmas window displays in downtown Decatur include those at Millikin National Bank.
Artificial trees
1971: There are a multitude of artificial trees of every type on the Decatur market - and many of them are very realistic.
Wired for the season
1991: David Wallace, 32, waves to passing cars from the driveway to his home at 1460 W. Tait Ave. In addition to decorating his home, Wallace decided to deck himself out in strings of Christmas lights and greet passing motorists. He's plugged in to a 100-foot extension cord. Why does he stand out there every night from 6:30 to 9:30 until three days after Christmas? "I do it for the kids and the holiday spirit," said Wallace.
Season's Greetings
1990: Ken Handley started working on this year's decorations in early November.
8,750 lights
1978: The blaze of light coming from northwest of Decatur appears only for a few short weeks every year. Many motorists don't need to think twice about where the light comes from. Each holiday season for the last six years William and Vada Wond of Bearsdale Road on route 1 add more Christmas lights to decorate the outside of their home. This year they put up 8,750 lights, compared to 2,100 in 1972. Wond said each season motorists stop to gawk at the display and snap photographs.
Religious category
1986: Ralph Martin, 13 North Court Drive, won first place in the religious category.
Darrell Beck
1986: Darrell Beck's display at 5 Forest Knolls drew much attention.
Non-religious category
1986: Bill Williams of 396 Timber Drive won in the non-religious cateogry.
Mixture of themes
1988: A mixture of Christmas themes can be seen at the home of Mike Camfield, 1757 Moundford Court.
Santa Claus
1988: Santa Claus and his reindeer prance across the lawn of Wayne Stivers' home at 1870 Winnetka Ave.
Pointsof light
1991: Framed in his garage doorway, Wayne Stivers of Decatur unravels the first string of more than 5,000 Christmas lights that will decorate his house and yard this season. Stivers says the process will take about two weeks. This year's decorations will include a Nativity scene.
Disney Land
1976: Seasme Street, Peanuts and other characters form this children's paradise in a circular area near the Mullins' house.
Holiday Glow
1990: Decatur resident Harry Johnston was outside during last week's snowfall to add more lights to his Blue Spruce tree.
Christmas decorations
1990: Christmas decorations, including this star, were taken down Friday from Central Park in Decatur. Landmark Mall worker Larry Kellogg removes a star from atop a waiting area.
It's over
1991: Larry Kellogg, a Landmark Mall employee, removes Christmas wreaths from utlity posts Thursday.
Shusters
1992: Bren Shuster, 26, was going to great heights Monday, braving chill winds on his extension ladder. Shuster was replacing faded bulbs on a cross that hands all year on the family farm, seven miles east of Moweaqua. Shuster said his brother Eric, 18, a punter for Central A&M High School, has handled the lighting chores in recent years but couldn't put in much time this year because of high school football playoffs. Lighting the buildings and trees is a family tradition for the Shusters.
Tree trimming time
1985: Larry McNamara did his part to advance the holiday spirit Sunday by stringing lights on a blue spruce at the corner of Fenway and Wildwood drives. Sunny skies and a Decatur-area high temperature of 50 degrees made his task easier.
Christmas in the air
1983: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in downtown Decatur and elsewhere throughout Central Illinois. Larry Kellog, an employee of the downtown Landmark Mall, places a tree on a lamppost. Over 125 individual decorations have been placed on posts throughout the downtown area. Alos, lights were recently strung in Central Park and are on each night.
Christmas Cat
1981: Santa Claus sits at the controls of a new motor grader parked in front of the Caterpillar Tractor Co. plant at 27th St. and Pershing Road. The machine outlined by about 500 tiny lights, has a backdrop of more than 400 lights strung from teh flagpole in the shape of a Christmas tree.
Santa heads for landing
1982: Ralph Stiles appears to be in the way of a precision landing by Santa Claus and his reindeer. But he wasn't in any danger; he actually was just installing Christmas decorations on the roof of his home at 2389 E. Locust St.
Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR
December 28, 2020 at 06:00AM
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Decatur shoppers spend weekend snatching up bargains on holiday goodies - Herald & Review
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