Bresee’s Christmas Figures Bring Back Many Fond Memories

The dining room at St. James’ Retirement Community is beautifully decorated with a Christmas tree surrounded by 15 antique figurines that used to grace the windows of Bresee’s Oneonta Department Store every holiday season for approximately 50 years starting in the 1940s. St. James’ is helping to preserve Oneonta’s history. You can see other photos of this display on the St. James’ Facebook page. (Photo by Monica Calzolari)

Bresee’s Christmas Figures Bring Back Many Fond Memories

By MONICA CALZOLARIONEONTA

Five residents of St. James’ Retirement Community, located at 9 St. James’ Place, reminisced about the good old days when Bresee’s Oneonta Department Store was open. Fifteen of Bresee’s antique Christmas carolers and Santa’s helpers, dating back to the 1940s, decorate the dining room at St. James for the holidays.

Resident Norma Brackett said, “These Christmas figures bring back such good memories.”

Kathy Clarkson, executive director for St. James’, said, “We are so lucky to have 15 of the original pieces from Bresee’s annual window display. Some were donated. Others we bought.”

Clarkson remembers shopping at Bresee’s on Thursday nights with her mother before it closed after more than 90 years of operation in Oneonta.

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