We Went for Muffins

We went for blueberry muffins last week (more on this later) and to see a unique village called The Enchanted Village which can only be visited at this very special time of year. It's inside a furniture warehouse in Avon, MA, and admission is free. 

As if that wasn't a special treat in itself, we were welcomed by a trio of singing penguins. This wasn't our first time visit as we first visited five years ago. As with most things, the village was shut down for several holiday seasons during the pandemic.

In 8,000 square feet of yuletide scenes, The Enchanted Village has 18 vignettes of all young children, 59 mechanical figurines total. It's only open to the public from late November until January 1 in Avon, MA. After that, it's set-up is closed to the public until the next holiday season.

Here's the backstory . . . This village was originally named the Enchanted Village of St. Nicolas, and was created in 1958 when Boston-based department store, Jordan Marsh, commissioned a Bavarian toy maker to create 28 fully decorated holiday scenes with 250 magically animated figures. 

The figures were depictions of life-size children in a quaint recreation of a Victorian-era village during the Christmas season in a simpler time, without the hustle of today. Assorted scenes show children wrapped in scarves and wearing warm clothing, as they are working in stores, trimming trees, delivering presents, selling newspapers, playing in a band.

At its peak, the display consumed an entire floor of Boston's first department store founded in the 1860s. Scenes were also spotlighted in the store's display windows. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, the Enchanted Village was displayed in the flagship store. A trip to see the village became a New England tradition, until Jordan Marsh closed the display in 1972. 

In the early 1990s, the display was briefly returned, but Jordan Marsh closed in 1998 after being purchased by the Macy's chain of department stores. The new owners had no interest in the village and sold it  to the City of Boston which used it as a City Hall Plaza display until 2006. The city stopped displaying the village when the cost became too great and in 2009 put it up for auction. Unfortunately, not all of the figures had survived during the years.

That's when Jordan's Furniture (no relation) another Massachusetts-based retailer, came to its rescue. Its president and CEO Eliot Tatelman remembered traveling from his Newton, MA, home to see the village. Based on those childhood memories, he purchased the surviving pieces of the vintage mannequin display from the city of Boston at auction for $140,000, and had the remaining collection restored to its former glory. 

When Tatelman bought the Enchanted Village, it included only 21 original facades/rooms, and approximately 80 figures. Many parts had been lost including an 8-set Lionel train electric train that previously was a central part of the display.

Everything now on display is original with no added facades or figures. According to Tatelman, shown in the above display, his team updated the mechanicals and refurbished (not replaced) all the original facial features, original hair, and all the original clothes on the mannequins. 

About Those Muffins . . . The holiday village wasn't the only attraction at Boston's Jordan Marsh department store, it's where a blueberry muffin became a top-seller.

Muffins from a department store weren't that unusual years ago when, like many similar grand department stores of that era, Jordan Marsh had an on-site cafe/bakery. It served shoppers sweet treats and the ever-popular cake-like blueberry muffins were topped with crunchy sugar crystals.

Their popularity continued despite the store's closing. In 1998, the store's head baker, John Pupek, who had been baking at Marsh's since 1961, opened a Brockton, MA, bakery called (ready or not) the Jordan Marsh Muffin Co. It turned out thousands of blueberry muffins weekly, closing in 2004 when Pupek retired. He later sold the recipe to Montilio’s Baking Company in Boston which now provides pre-baked and packaged muffins to Jordan's Furniture at the Avon, MA location.

These treats are seasonal, just like the Enchanted Village. They're available for single purchase or in one of these six-packs, which we purchased — the cost was $13.

If you're not in the area, and a blueberry muffin aficionado, you can order an 8-pack with free shipping, but the price is way more $$$, even with 2 more included.