Christmas At the Zoo

They have a large selection of ornaments all competitively priced. What stood out the most was their selection of handcrafted European ornaments, although I was a bit disappointed not to find any Käthe Wohlfahrt. Needless to say, as for finding top of the line ornaments in a physical store in the Portland area, this is probably your best bet. The Gund stuffed animals are also a plus.
Unfortunately, I had to give them 2 stars due to poor service. Whenever possible I like to shop local, but if I drive 45 minutes to get to Oregon City and am denied when I get there as a paying, and mind you, 8 month pregnant, customer to use their restroom, I’m going to stay at home next time. I would suggest they change their bathroom policy so customers don’t have to ask at the pub across the street who were much more accommodating than the ladies at Christmas at zoo.

I haven’t the foggiest idea how this store stays in business. We wanted an Oregon ornament to commemorate our trip and, after a few days, still hadn’t found one. A Google search brought up a website discussing the great collection this store carried, only the address was in downtown Portland. In the few years since that article was written, the store relocated 30 minutes south.
We made the drive down, expecting to have a few ornaments to choose from. I wish we’d called first. While the store had a large variety of collectible ornaments, they had 1 style of «Oregon City» ornaments, and none of Oregon in general. We spent more time working the parking meter than we did in the store.

It feels like the start of a really bad, politically incorrect joke. But, «Guess what Poland does best?»
Don’t let your mind wander to inappropriate places. The answer, you see, is Christmas ornaments.
Once your eyes are opened to how many products are manufactured in China, it is a little unsettling. Clothes, toys, furniture, shoes and yes, Christmas ornaments.
Christmas is a pretty big deal in a traditional way in my household. We have many ornaments handed down from generations of German relatives. So when I supplement my collection, I tend to seek out European ornaments to keep the theme and spirit of the season intact. So even though about 80% of their stock is under the name, «Merck Family’s Old World Christmas,» if you take the time to read the label, you will clearly see, «Made in China.»
The store is beautiful and is a mix of themed ornaments on Christmas trees (Sports, American icons, dogs, etc.) as well as plush animals. From over-​sized to puppets, including a collection of Steiff animals. They also sell nutcrackers (made in Germany), so all hope isn’t lost.
The nicer ornaments in the collection, made by Christopher Radko and Patricia Breen, are both made in Poland.
Christmas at the Zoo is a local business, formerly located in downtown Portland, so I certainly wish them well. I just plan to purchase items on a limited basis. For as long as buying American and European is an option.

So, I’ve passed this store a couple of times and thought it looked like a fun little tiny shop with Christmas ornaments available year-​round. I figured they’d have ornaments with different themes for all the collectors and hobbyists that we know and love.
Over the past few years all tries to shop here were met with either groans from Sam, hard-​to-​find parking and shuttered doors. «What, closed at a ridiculously late hour on a Sunday?!» Also, since we don’t believe in Christmas, it didn’t seem like the most-​best place for us to shop, you know.
Wow! I was pleasantly surprised when we finally* got a chance to shop here! Sure they have a dozen or more trees filled with themed ornaments from the normal (animals, local football teams, snowflakes) to the bizarre (a Halloween themed tree, a I-could-be-offended-by-this-but-I’m-having-a-good-time-so-I’ll-just-pretend-to-ignore-it Asian themed tree complete with blown glass figures sitting in lotus position… hey, isn’t that a Buddhist icon?). «Hey, is that the Grinch? No? Oh, it’s just a furry-​footed, three-​armed alien? Cool!» They also have collector-​grade items in glass cases.
But wait, there’s more! Shelves upon shelves of stuffed animals greeted us as we turned the corner. «Ooh, is that a bandicoot? No, it’s a bilby!» *gasp* «Ooh, a sugar glider!» *gasp* «…a sea dragon!» *gasp* «Did you see this aardvark?» *gasp* «Look, look, there are 3 different armadillos!» We debated getting the sea dragon, but settled on a machine washable octopus that was sooo soft!
Delving deeper we found giant animals — a 7-​foot tall bear next to an even taller giraffe and a 5-​foot tall emu. «Look up there: a pride of lions!» Then there was their Steiff collection. Wow! Even more amazing than the vast number (three sets of shelves and a glass case full) was the fact that some were 25% and even 50% off! Craziness.
There were more high-​end collectible dolls that I didn’t recognize… but was in total awe at how many things were arranged neatly. Also, the store seemed surprisingly navigable despite all the breakable things. I did end up clutching my purse to me so that it wouldn’t swing into a tree full of glass ornaments, but other than that, I felt very free to walk around and look without (too much) fear.
As we approached what we thought was the back of the store to pay for our spotted octopus, we found two more sections of merchandise! More ornaments and more animals. Also there was a small, but extremely varied, section of nutcrackers that included a set of Wizard of Oz themed ones. Below that were more decorations and some card sets.
There was one more back room that was filled with more plush animals. There were two rounders of hand puppets, shelves of ponies, a handful of dragons and some lovely Gund bears that reminded me of my childhood. There were also kitties and puppies for sale (no, not real ones, silly!)
As we went to pay, there were even more delights! Behind the counter were 3-​foot tall bears wearing costumes from different musicals. There was Cosette from Les Miserables, Elphaba from Wicked and even a couple of cats from Cats! I don’t know what they were for (we had to hurry off*) but they had little cards with information and I think there was a designer’s name printed on a sign. Maybe there were for a charity auction?
Well, this was a wonderfully nice store to browse around and we will definitely be back — for browsing and for buying! I’m definitely getting stuffed animals for next year’s Winter Hawks Teddy Bear Toss here! (^_​^)
*We had some time to kill between work and a Blazers game so we went to Ben & Jerry’s and then walked down here but only (!) had about half-​an-​hour to browse.
P. S. The service was great. Two older women were working. One of them came out to the front and welcomed us as soon as we came in and offered her help should we need it. They smiled indulgently when we came toward the checkout counter and saw that there was twice the space in the store than we thought. And they chatted to each other and another patron when they saw that we were still browsing. I think the lady checking us out also told us to enjoy our octopus. A+!