Holidays of yesteryear beckon at Jeff West Home

Did you cherish winter holidays when downtowns were festooned in seasonal trimmings and department store windows offered festive tableaus of quaint snowbound villages, elegant parties and dresswear, and Santa doing his merry work?

If so, you should stroll over to Jeff West Home in historic Lewes. There, you can linger in front of his Market Street display window at the sight of Santa cheering on two of his hardest-working elves as they hand-craft vintage toys under white garland and the same multicolored lights your grandmother draped around her Christmas tree year after year.

It’s a lovely sight for people of any age, and a poignant one for folks who remember when the commercial cores of American cities and towns brimmed with decorations that turned residents into sightseers who planned entire evenings to simply gaze at the seasonal wonders.

“I’m 400 years old in Christmas years,” West said with laugh. “It all goes back to being a little kid with a dear mother and father who gave me free reign to decorate our home for the holidays.”

Serendipity and sensibility have always gone hand-in-hand

Apparently West’s mom and dad were wise to their son’s talents, as evidenced by his conversation, at the age of 12, with his father as they watched a man create the display that welcomed shoppers into a Raleigh’s store at a mall near Washington, D.C.

“That would be a great career for you,” his father said, which was met with West’s astonishment that someone could get paid to do something so innately enjoyable.

A few years later there was another surprise when West, as an enterprising 18-year-old, came up the escalator at the Hecht’s Department Store in downtown D.C. and asked a woman who was also working on a display, “How you get into this kind of work.”

Despite the fact that he shared no information about any expertise he might have had, she gave him a long look – in his Ocean Pacific shorts and T-shirt – and suggested he accompany her directly to her boss, who was then looking for a “trimmer” to finish off the displays located throughout the store. The man hired him shortly thereafter.

While West is too modest to describe himself as such, he proved to be a prodigy who learned on the job through a long and vibrant career with Hecht’s, the Kellogg Collection and with his own store, while also decorating many homes for people who relish his classic and elegant style.

Along the way he’s had the opportunity to meet First Ladies and celebrities and create some of his favorite decorating memories with Ethel Kennedy, who invited him to her storied residence at Hickory Hill for advice on paint colors.

“She told me it was her birthday, so I couldn’t say no to the invitation, and gave me a tour through the whole house so I could soak in the history,” he said.

Capturing magic and memories in a new holiday tradition

As one of the many who cherished those jaunts into downtown for the holiday season, West was especially inspired this year to create his own retro holiday vibe. It might have happened anyway given his love for traditional Christmas décor, but the full vision crystalized very quickly last summer with a phone call from a friend well-acquainted with his taste.

“She told me she was at an antique consignment shop and found these two mechanized Christmas elves and wondered if I might like them. It was an easy decision once I knew they still worked.”

Shortly afterward, he encountered a jolly Santa figure at a shop in Greenwood, and from there began developing the window as it is today – a cheerful moving picture of the vintage cheer that calls to mind the department stores of years past.

It even includes a sign, bordered by decorative holly leaves, replicating his favorite holiday slogan from a Barney’s window – “Give Good Gift” – and a list of “naughty and nice” children to create an experience that won’t be replicated in the windows of traditional strip malls.

“I remember seeing these same actual elf figures as a child and feeling like something great and magical was about to happen. The settings gave us hope, and made you feel like you mattered, complete with all of that sparkling anticipation,” said West.

While this is the first year the 1970s-era figures are on display, he’s bound to make it an annual tradition.

“These kinds of displays are a dying craft. It’s heartbreaking because when this element is missing from retail it takes away from the romance of shopping at a beautiful store,” West said. “I want people to stop and smile and know that these things still matter because they do. Watching people through that window glass makes my day.”