One of the great things about the holiday season is the gift giving.  Learn one of the special aspects of holiday gifts from the Museum Store in the words of its director, Sarah Jane Wick.

The holiday season is almost upon us, and what I love most about the Museum Store this time of year is the stories shared by our ornament shoppers. So many of our members and patrons have made the ornaments here a part of their Christmas tradition. Sometimes the whole family, including several generations, will come in together to pick out their special ornament for that year.

Other times we’re helping parents or grandparents make selections for their family. They are usually juggling slips of note paper with names of loved ones to be painted on the ornaments by Master Folk Artist Marj Nejdl, who has been personalizing ornaments for the Museum Store for more than 40 years. One guest confessed that she had skipped a year once because she felt that her “grown-up” grandchildren were too old to be interested in still getting ornaments. When this was met with many protests, she delightedly vowed never to miss a year again.

In 2016, Marj began designing a custom limited edition ornament each year featuring her beautiful Czech folk art. All our ornaments are imported from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and a few from Poland. They are mouth-blown glass and hand-decorated, each one its own unique work of art. The ornaments are available to purchase in the NCSML Museum Store year-round, and Marj is able to personalize most of them as “long as they have a spot without glitter.”