Dig This Treasure!

Last weekend, my family ventured up to Holly, MI for their annual Dickens’ Christmas festival.  The festival has become a tradition each year to kick off the holiday season, and it does a good job.  There are literally chestnuts roasting on an open fire in Holly.  And Scrooge roams the street being all scroogey.  

The whole gang was here, and our plan of attack was to load up on hot chocolate and then hit all of the numerous Holly antique stores.  My sister Lindsay (chugging her cocoa above) is a fellow ebay guru, and has been raking in the cash lately selling old GI Joe and Star Wars toys.  Lindsay’s husband Mike, and our mom Joan, went to a gun store down the road to “browse.”  And you all know Zach and Timmy, they chose antiques over weapons.

The antique stores in Holly are super old-timey/general store looking.  So the atmosphere is just as good, if not better, than the actual treasures.  They are also huge, so at the end of the day, we had antique-shopped for about 5 hours.

Most of the items in Holly are high-end, and also pretty rare.  The first store we went into is known for being haunted, and was featured on Paranormal Witness (never heard of it).  They didn’t have any ghosts for sale here, but they did have a lot of other neat things:

This is me making a phone call to the ghost in the store, asking if he/she has scared anyone lately.

This store is also known for a vampire hunting kit they’ve had since I was like 8 and going to Holly.  They’ve been trying to sell it for $15,000.

Zach contends that this kit is TOTALLY FAKE.  And he is probably right.  You know who loves this kit so much though?  Steampunks.  Holly needs a Steampunk hunting kit because it was being overrun this day.  I don’t really understand Steampunk, so if someone can enlighten me about the connection between them and Charles Dickens and Holly, MI and vampires, that would be so great.

I didn’t buy anything at this first store, but our second stop was very fruitful.  I found a Skookum doll for $35!  I’ve wanted one of these for a long time, but they are usually expensive.  This guy has some slight paint wear on his face, but no big deal at all.

This doll was in a locked case with some others, and the store owner pulled the doll out for me.  I then explained that there is a doll quota in my household and that I would need to hunt down my husband for approval on this purchase.  He said that was fine, so I walked away with the doll.  Now, this place was HUGE and super crowded, so it took me an eternity to find Zach.  By the time I made it back to the register to buy the doll, the store owner was convinced I had stolen it.  He let out a huge sigh of relief and exclaimed, “There you are!”  He then tried to sell me a million other dolls. 

Zach found a cool book at this store, which we also bought:

I should also mention that I accidentally rummaged through a bunch of garbage at this sale.  Literally garbage.  This is the SECOND TIME I have done this while treasure hunting.  I thought this was a basket of little ziplocked knick-knacks, but it was really trash from a nearby snack stand with coffee and cookies.

Also, there is totally a half-eaten banana hanging out in there.

We next visited a store that was mostly selling old fossils and Egyptian artifacts.  Zach was so excited about a case of old Egyptian ceramics, and then he saw a sign that said “Display Only, Not for Sale.”  I thought he was going to cry.

We did find an old lead Santa riding on a sled, which we bought and have paired with our lead skiing Santa and lead skiing buddies.

Man, those little guys bring me such deep joy.  I have probably never seen anything cuter than those recreational Santas.

The last store we visited was more of a creepy antique museum.  It was really dark, and nothing had price tags on it.  I had never been in this store because it is off the main drag, and the outside looks like a building that is permanently closed for business.

That wreath was probably put up like 6 years ago.  And all of the windows had the shades and blinds drawn.  Anyway, they were open for business.  Well, kind of.  When we walked in, an old woman “greeted” us with a frown, looked us up and down and said, “Go ahead and browse.”  Browse?  We must have looked like a bunch of Aladdins walking into the palace.

It was really dark in there, obviously.

Here is Zach touching something, which was probably against the rules.

Interestingly, in the middle of this place, was a weird little opening into a cave.  Not a real cave, but a manmade fake cave.  So bizarre, and also the best.

It had a bunch of dioramas inside….inexplicably.

My sister was the only one who actually found something to buy here.  It was an old paper magazine from the 1920s or so, and was advertising a circus.  She bought it because it featured some guy on the cover who designed all of the exhibits at the Detroit Zoo (she is the penguin keeper there).  It was a whopping $6.  She was thrilled.

-Erin