Circa 1976. Reader submitted photo.

Overnight I received an email from a friend:

I saw your post about Christmas. Sending you a converted slide (hence the poor quality) circa 1976. National Liberty Corp owned the Gunkle Mill in East Whiteland before it was donated to the township.

Arthur DeMoss opened up the small building adjacent to the Mill and created a manger scene. There were figures and real animals.  In this photo, you can see a critter (goat, ram??) in the foreground, but there were  bigger animals too. I remember a donkey who would come to the fence hoping you had food.

I think it lasted 5 or so years in the 1970s. Once we went over at midnight on Christmas Eve and it was snowing–it was magical.

Maybe others remember it too. And maybe they will have a better photo!

I think this is so cool and this is the first person to respond to the post I posted recently about my Christmas blogging idea.

It’s not complicated. In a time where so much of the day today world can be so ugly, I thought maybe we would throw back to holidays past in Chester County.

I have not lived here in Chester County long enough to know about all the celebrations continue today or are purely from the past. Parades, festivals, things that speak of the season and community.

So if you have memories of Christmas past and photos you would like to share. Please contact this blog via the blog’s Facebook page. Please tell me about the photos you’re sending and how you would like them attributed. I can attribute them simply “reader submitted” or put an entire name and so on. If you are sending things in for celebrations that still continue today and it something that requires public participation and donations, tell me who it is they are supposed to contact and when the event will occur.

And for those who love the historic mill, I do have a whole bunch of photos still to go through from Chester County Day which I promise I will post.