Collectors celebrate Christmas past

At Christmas, many families reflect on childhood memories. Bob and Jean Zimmerman bring them to life.

The Zimmermans, longtime Weatherly residents, have been collecting antiques for decades. But items from the holiday season hold a special significance.

When you walk into their living room around the holidays, you could think you’re walking into George Bailey’s house. They display glass ornaments, Lionel trains, antique toys and a small town’s worth of miniature houses decorated for the holiday.

For Bob Zimmerman, it reminds him of the Christmas he enjoyed as a child growing up in Freeland. He comes from a Pennsylvania German family with a history of coal mining, and his folk art houses definitely reflect that tradition.

“Christmas was always a special time. Some of my happiest memories go back to the time when three of my grandparents were still alive,” he said.

The displays are assembled with the scale and detail of an old department store window display. It’s no coincidence — Zimmerman fondly recalls the details of the displays he saw in the window at the Deisroth department store on Broad Street in Hazleton.

“Deisroth’s had wonderful displays. Going to Hazleton on a Friday night as a little kid was a major event,” he said.

He and his wife, Jean, who grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country, have always shared a love of antiques. They’ve collected the Christmas ornaments and “Grandfather’s Houses” at auctions and antiques dealers for years. Some of the items actually came from Bob’s childhood.

The train that circles under the tree has been in his collection since the ’50s.

None of them are in mint condition, but the sentimental value is much higher than what they might fetch at an antique store.

Jean is invested in the display, but sometimes she has to rein in Bob’s enthusiasm about Christmas. One year, he left the Christmas tree up well into spring — and they spent the subsequent years vacuuming up the last few stubborn pine needles left around the living room.

“One time he went to a baseball game and I took them down,” she recalled. “It was April. He came home and said, ‘How come you took the tree down?’ ”

Bob prefers a spruce tree because its sturdy branches hold his numerous ornaments well.

The process of packing up the ornaments can take a long time. The blown glass ornaments are wrapped in paper. Bob has built his own system of organizers to protect them in the attic until the next Christmas.

“It does take a lot of organization to take it down — as much to take it down as it does to put it up,” Jean said.

Over the years, they’ve opened their home to friends and neighbors from Weatherly. But the number of visitors has been decreasing. This year, Bob downsized his display. He’s over 80 years old.

“The whole business of collecting has changed — the type of things we like to look at, younger people are not interested in,” he said.

They still enjoy the classic decorations. Around their neighborhood, inflatable Santas, Snoopys and Minions have replaced the old decorations. Bob says that there’s nothing sacred about his way of celebrating Christmas, so he has no quarrel with the way others choose to celebrate it.

“Everything we do is secular. So how can you criticize somebody else’s version of secular Christmas?”