Visiting the Christmas Loft in North Conway & the Jackson, NH Covered Bridge

Now that I’ve shown you all those wonderful photos of the inside of Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, NH, I think I need to turn my attention to the Christmas Loft. I’ve seen photos and video of this store online and I thought it was worthy of a visit. After all, what’s wrong with Christmas 365 days of the year? I’m just glad we visited the area during the cooler months. I couldn’t imagine browsing through Christmas items in July.

The Christmas Loft is about a mile south of the rest of the stores. The entire drag of North Conway is a few miles long, but most of the touristy stuff is up north, where I showed you yesterday. Up in that area, cars are packed, bumper to bumper, slowly moving on their merry ways. Down near the Christmas Loft, there’s a bit more breathing room.

Even though I saw photos and some video of the inside of this store, I wasn’t quite sure of the layout. I thought it consisted of a small village on the inside and then just a few little trinkets to buy. I was right about the village, but there is a lot more to purchase than just a few trinkets. It’s Christmas all over the place.

This is the entryway, leading into the store. I threw a few lollipops in here as well because I like them.

After entering the store, we were led to its center. That’s where the village is. It’s basically a miniaturized version of a real Christmas village, if there’s such a thing. It’s actually really neat. I enjoyed myself as I took dozens and dozens of photos. I’ll show you the highlights here.

Even after entering the store, I didn’t quite understand the layout. I was too busy looking around the village to figure things out. After a while though, I did realize that the village was at the center of the building and if I walked through any of the doors of the village shops, I’d enter the rooms where the Christmas items are held. It was like the village was at the center and a “U” of stores surrounded it. Here are some of the more interesting items I found in the various rooms.

One of my favorite areas was where there were small village buildings all set up. There were quite a number of scenes. Some of them were of the Dickens Village variety and there were others too. These are some of the buildings I liked best.

There was even an entire room dedicated to Christmas lights. Of course, I took some photos of them.

Here’s a model Santa Claus for you. He was about three feet tall and enclosed in a large case.

If you’re into those small villages, you can really have a lot of fun in this store. They not only sold the ceramic village houses, but the small figures that go with them as well. I don’t think these are to scale, but I’m sure people do something with them.

I saved the best for last. I love nutcrackers and there were a whole bunch of them at the Christmas Loft. I was in my glory. Take a look at these.

There was so much more, but I couldn’t take photos of it all. It’s definitely worth a visit and I wouldn’t mind going back if I’m ever in that area again.

After a few hours of walking around and visiting the highlights, we decided to leave. After all, we had another two and a half hours of driving. We also wanted to take some photos of the many wonderful things we saw on the way in. During the trip back north, we stopped off at the Jackson, NH covered bridge. This is a big attraction and we definitely had to stop to take some pictures of it.

I should have known there would be a tourist trap on the other side of the bridge. Yes, another general store. This one was called Flossie’s and it was very cute. Unfortunately, they didn’t want us to take photos of the inside, so I only have two from the outside to show you.

The entire area is so beautiful. I haven’t ever spent any time in New Hampshire, so I was pleased. It’s a great state and I look very much forward to exploring it more in the future.

My next post will be very brief. On the way back home from this trip, we stopped off at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine. It’s a wealthy area and it’s worth the stop. I took some photos of the outside of the hotel and a few other random things. Until then – thanks for reading!