Old Fashioned Christmas Toy Lands

Who knew that before shopping centers and “big box” stores, the selection of toys in local stores was limited during most of the year? Every year, from after Thanksgiving until year end, several Paris stores would stock a wide variety of toys and display them in special areas called “toy lands”. In addition to the toys for sale, there would be decorated trees, lots of cotton batting, and Santa. The toy land on the second floor of J.C. Penney was smaller, but in my memory similar to the display in the department store in the movie “A Christmas Story” (You’ll shoot your eye out, kid), which was set in the 1940’s. Submitted by Ray Harding.