A Very Sveden House Christmas

While combing through thrift store vinyl, I was surprised to find this little gem in excellent condition....

I guess it used to be a thing for businesses to put out Christmas albums. I also own a "True Value Hardware" Christmas album (not to brag or anything) and I've seen a KFC Christmas album. They're out there.

My childhood memories of Sveden House are pretty foggy. I remember liking the way it looked inside. I was totally clueless about Scandinavian culture but it made me think of "medieval times" or something.  The concept of "All you can eat" just seemed so incredible and you can believe that the handful of times I got to go there I ate way too much.

So there isn't a year on this album anywhere but Sveden House was around since the 60s and this seems from that era. Now please enjoy some cheery holiday sounds of the Sveden House Chorale singing "There's Always Another Potato" !   Happy Holidays!

I scored this booth seat from the Kopper Top

Actually now that I have it I'm not totally sure what I'm gonna do with it but when I saw the lot of them out on the curb it was a "holy shit" moment and I just thought at least one needed to be saved!

I often think of the Kopper Top around Christmas time actually. It used to be a tradition of mine to make friends go there with me during the holidays because the place used to go NUTS with decorations! I mean like every surface seemed to be covered with something Christmassy. 

New owners will soon transform this place into a new bar called "Pour House" according to the worker I talked to there.

Piles of whatnot everywhere. Now I wish I would have looked for a booth table.

Holiday Memories of Downtown Grand Rapids

Starting the holiday season with this cool little video I found. Lots of charming imagery of downtown Christmas times from the past while local folks share their memories.  Maybe a little more "cute" than the kind of things I normally post here but Christmas is a very cute time...