Why I Oughta...

Just last week, I posted the most recent Marshall Field's Walnut Room Christmas mug that I came across at an antique mall up in Wisconsin .  That made it five in the collection here on the blog. Here's the list of posts on the topic here on "Why I Oughta...": 1980 -  Tree with Bear tall glass . 1981 -  Contortionist Santas glass mug . 1983 -  Uncle Mistletoe tall glass . 1986 -  Greetings from Mistletoe Bear Red outline 2000 -  Mr. and Mrs. Santabear Marriage glass mug with multiple colors . But, you'll note that sometime between 1983 and 1986, Marshall Field's moved from using Uncle Mistletoe to someone called Mistletoe Bear.  And then by 2000, the bear had gotten married and his name changed to Santabear. That set me down on an eBay rabbit hole to see if I could piece together the full list of mugs.  Here's the fruits of that effort:  The Definitive Guide to Marshall Field's Christmas Mugs.  I have been able to document every year starti

Over the years, I've shared my family's experiences at the Walnut Room at Marshall Field's Macy's on State Street in Chicago .  We go every year and have gone since I was just a little guy.  It is something that my Mom organizes and I come to look forward to each season.  I've also chronicled the unfortunate fate of Uncle Mistletoe and Marshall Field's itself . I've also begun to build a document of the annual mugs that are released by the Walnut Room each year at Christmastime. This post has the full reference list that I've built so far.  But, the photo above includes a new one:  1986 featuring Santabear in red outline form 1 .  Or at least that I thought it was Santabear.  But, look at the band on his hat:  Mistletoe.  And if you look closely at the scrawl on the far right you'll see: "Greetings from Mistletoe Bear." What the what?!? Let's go back and look at the history so far on the blog as documented through the glass

Here's a vintage Christmas pro-tip:  Head to your local Goodwill about two weeks after Thanksgiving and you'll come across an abundance of Christmas decorations that people have discarded.  It works something like this:  Friday after Thanksgiving, people decorate their houses.  By Saturday or Sunday, the 'remnants' (as I call them) are still sitting in the tubs and people have decided that certain things didn't make the cut.  That can be ornaments.  Or figures.  Or garland.  Or lights.  Or...on occasion, Marshall Field's Walnut Room Christmas mugs.  That's how I came across this Walnut Room Mug from 2000 that features Santa Bear getting married.  Yeah...getting married?!?!?  I don't know the details, but I'm guessing that the folks at Marshall Field's were trying to introduce a female Santa Bear?  So they got Santa Bear married to Mrs. Santa Bear.  Kinda like how Disney introduced Duffy first, then moved on to adding ShellieMay the female

I scored another vintage Marshall Field's Christmas mug at a Garage Sale a week or so ago - this time from 1983.   If you recall, I posted a few years ago about the two Walnut Room/Marshall Field's Christmas mugs that I picked up at the Elmhurst Goodwill .  They were 1980 and 1981 years.  There were four total mugs (two from each year) and my sister Vic has a Marshall Field's collection of sorts, so a pair of them were destined for her collection. If you go back and look at the other post showing the 1980 and 1981 mugs , you'll see that the 1980 version is one of these 'hot toddy' mugs while the 1981 one is a normal mug shape.  The '83 version went back to the taller, 'hot toddy' version.  But, the character is just as interesting. 1980:  A teddy bear, Christmas tree and presents under the tree. 1981:  Contortionist Santa. But, in 1983, they used Uncle Mistletoe.   Don't know who he is?  C heck out this piece about Field's from the