Staff photos / R. Michael Semple William Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, talks about a Christmas scene with an Idora Park theme that is part of the society’s 17th annual “Memories of Christmas Past” exhibit at the Arms Family Museum on Wick Avenue in Youngstown. Last year, the MVHS acquired the collection amassed by Jim and Toni Amey for their Idora Park Experience and this part of the exhibit is in the museum’s solarium.

IF YOU GO . . .

WHAT: 17th “Memories of Christmas Past”

WHEN: Today through Dec. 31. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday with expanded hours until 7 p.m. Thursdays in December before Christmas

WHERE: Arms Family Museum, 648 Wick Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for senior citizens and college students, $8 for children ages 3 to 18, and free for members and active-duty military and veterans, and includes free same-day admission to the Tyler History Center. For more information, go to mahoninghistory.org or call 330-743-2589.

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YOUNGSTOWN — Idora Park, Krampus, “Home Alone” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” are all part of the 17th edition of “Memories of Christmas Past” at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society’s Arms Family Museum.

The holiday display, which opens Saturday and runs through Dec. 31, has become one of the historical society’s most popular events, attracting as many as 8,000 visitors in less than two months.

MVHS Executive Director H. William Lawson said its schedule is not unlike many retailers now.

“You go through the year and then in November, December, you make it all,” Lawson said.

“In those two months, there’s a lot going on here in terms of the number of visitors. The community has really embraced it and adopted it, and it’s a tradition for a lot of families. You see the same people coming back every year and saying, ‘I couldn’t wait ’til you opened.'”

This year’s show incorporates one of the society’s more recent acquisitions. The solarium at the Arms family home on Wick Avenue is devoted to Idora Park, an amusement park that operated in Youngstown from 1899 to 1984. Last year, the MVHS acquired the collection amassed by Jim and Toni Amey for their Idora Park Experience.

The display includes its Fortune Teller machine, funhouse mirrors, artifacts from its midway and models of some of its most memorable attractions.

“Idora Park was never open at Christmastime, but we play with that and have an Idora Park Christmas Experience,” Lawson said. “It’s a very small part of a very large collection, but we wanted to keep it in the public’s view while we work on plans and fundraising to develop a museum that we’ll have at 250 E. Federal St.”

The exhibition spans more than a century of holiday traditions, from decorations that draw from the religious aspects of the holiday to those reflecting pop culture and the commerce of Christmas.

Along with Santa Claus and St. Nicholas, this year’s display includes Krampus, a creature from central European folklore who serves as a malevolent counterpart to jolly old St. Nick.

Lawson said some of the MVHS staff has lobbied for a Krampus appearance for the past two years.

“Krampus is an emerging rock star, but it’s an old Alpine cultural thing going back to Europe,” Lawson said. “A lot of the holy days mix the pagan with with the Christian. You have the not so savory Krampus, then you have St Nicholas, and we wanted to make sure that we play the two off of each other.”

Another space has the feeling of a family room in the 1960s or ’70s on Christmas morning with a big tree covered in old-fashioned colored lights and tinsel and presents like a Batman board game and Easy Bake oven underneath. On the turntable is “A Partridge Family Christmas Card.”

“It really grabs the heart for a lot of people,” said Anthony Worrellia, buildings and grounds supervisor at the museum and a designer of “Memories of Christmas Past.” “I remember last year, a lot of people while I was here said, ‘Bring the tree back with the real tinsel, the lights and everything like that.’ When they ask for it, we bring it back, because there’s nothing better than the compliment of them remembering what we’ve done here over the years.”

Not all the decorations were made for the home. Over the fireplace is a “trade stimulator,” a holiday scene with moving parts that department stores used to catch customers’ attention and encourage them to come in and spend money. The piece was made by Gregory Motor in New York and would have been sold or rented to retail outlets.

Worrellia, who is an avid collector of Christmas decorations and ephemera, recently acquired another trade stimulator made by Gregory Motor. He got it too late for this year’s exhibition, but it’s likely to make an appearance at a future “Memories of Christmas Past” show.

The pantry of the Arms house, which last year featured items commemorating the 60th anniversary of the stop-motion animation special “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer,” is devoted to the “Peanuts” gang to mark the 60th anniversary of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

While many of those specials produced in the 1960s remain holiday traditions for many, Lawson said “A Charlie Brown Christmas” stands out.

“For me, I think what’s most interesting about it is how Charles Schultz and producers wove into the story the tension between the Christmas story and the more commercial Christmas (celebration),” Lawson said. “I think that puts it on a higher plane.”

The home’s dining room is devoted to “Home Alone,” which debuted in theaters 35 years ago. The box-office hit was directed by Chris Columbus, who grew up in Champion and graduated from Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School.

In addition to the vintage Christmas decorations on display, the Arms Family Museum has some older holiday items for sale in its gift shop as well as contemporary collectibles.