A dusting of fresh snow on the ground set the mood for a little Christmas shopping earlier this week so I decided to take the afternoon off and drive to Port Perry where the handsome nineteenth century street and boutique-style shopping conjures up a seasonal nostalgia. I love to see the old-fashioned lampposts decorated with Christmas wreaths and urns of greenery in front of almost every shop.
These colorful Mexican doll ornaments hanging in the window of All About Me tempted me inside for further investigation. Proprietor Monica Pope shops in Mexico several times a year to find affordable little treasures like the shiny tin doves hanging on the tree, these corn husk dolls and hand-painted clay nativity sets.
Nowhere is the sense of Christmas nostalgia so evocative as in Caviar & Cobwebs Garage Sale, a delightful consignment store with many quality antique and vintage pieces. The silver foil tree in the window reminded me of my student days, when I purchased something similar at Woolworths for under $10. Today these trees are collector’s items worth considerably more. 
Vintage glass ornaments from the 60s conjured up images of childhood tree-decorating parties. Many of these pieces are still eminently affordable you can come away piece of nostalgia for under $5. A steady stream of patrons was chatting with proprietor Carmen Chemello about Christmas past while I shopped for Christmas present.
What’s Christmas without the toys? Caviar & Cobwebs has some wonderful vintage items from a 1950s Erector set to an early Mickey Mouse doll.
An aura of French elegance makes Adorn the place to purchase gifts for special women. According to proprietor Elke Desrochers, “we carry lines of traditional fragrances that are exclusive to us – not even Holt Renfrew or Sephora carry these.” Lady Primrose from England is not only a beautiful scent, but it comes in the most exquisite refillable bottles, like the duster bottle banded with Swarovski crystals. From France, there are scents by Fragonard, Coudré and Rancé. “Napoleon commissioned these three Rancé scents for his whole court to bathe in,” said Elke.
There’s so much great shopping in town, from Eruopean fashions at Anja, to hand-made treasures at Meta-4 Gallery, that I could easily have stayed the whole weekend. On Friday, November 21 at 6.30 p.m. the town holds its tree-lighting ceremony in the waterfront park followed by a candlelight walk up Queen Street where kids meet Santa and his reindeer. Many of Port Perry’s downtown shops will be holding special sales and samplings this weekend as part of their annual Christmas Crawl.
Every year we buy one special ornament for our Christmas Tree. This year after reading your story we visited Caviar & Cobwebs and found a gem. Not only did we get more than one special ornament, we also learned a great deal about them from Carmen.
Posted by: D Baker | December 03, 2008 at 09:37 PM