Williamsville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Do you remember the mesmerizing, traditional Christmas window displays from the old AM&A's department store on Main Street in Buffalo? Well, now you can see them on display yet again in Williamsville.
St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church will have several complete displays from the long defunct department store available to view this Friday, Nov. 24 and Saturday, Nov. 25 at their popular annual Christmas Craft Show.
"We're blending two rich traditions for the holidays with the St. Gregory the Great Craft Show and the beautiful displays that often graced the windows of downtown Buffalo," said Thomas Kazmierczak, St. Gregory volunteer who brought the display together again. "We're bringing them back so a new generation gets to see the magic and beauty that were the holiday and Christmas seasons for many, many years. Everyone would come down the day after Thanksgiving to see it, so we even have the time of year and time of holiday week correct."
A Nativity SceneMax Faery - WBEN
Kazmierczak described what scenes will greet those who want to relive the history of a Buffalo Christmas classic tradition, which includes Night Before Christmas displays, a Holiday Ball scene, a nativity scene and more.
In addition, Kazmierczak made a number of calls to get all of these displays back together again.
"In the past, I would work with different organizations and knew that they had them. For example, we reached out to the Village of Lancaster, who displays them in their Christmas Village. We also reached out to AdWorks, who I knew had some animations. People heard that we were going to bring them back. And the South Buffalo family of churches reached out to us saying we have one of the original nativity displays. We also have new creations and the traditional original creations from the department store."
Mary Pfeiffer, Director of Parish Operations for the church, recalls the days where hundreds of people would gather around the department store and watch the animated displays after Thanksgiving day. It reminds her, as well as many other Western New Yorkers, of the holiday traditions.
"The day after Thanksgiving, it was leftovers at my aunt and uncle's house from the previous meal and then we would be all dressed up in our Sunday best and us nine kids would pile into a VW bus, both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, about 23 of us total that would pile in the cars, drive downtown and walk past all the windows and then we would go back to my house where we would have pie and ice cream."
The displays will be the centerpiece for the whole St. Gregory the Great's Christmas Craft Show. You can find more details here.
There's Santa and his reindeer!Max Faery - WBEN
