The Geppetto Snowglobe

It’s now ten days until Christmas Day and it got me thinking of a very magical December back in 2008 when Michael first moved into his new home. I was at my local mall doing some light Christmas shopping for family at The Disney Store when I spotted an adorable snowglobe with all of Michael’s favorite characters. It was light brown, in a style of a jukebox with a snowglobe of Jiminy Cricket (from Pinocchio) in the center of it with other classic Disney characters all around it. I knew Michael would love it, it was so him….but it was over $100. I called some of my follower friends and asked if they wanted to chip in for a Christmas gift to Michael from all of us. I purchased it, wrapped it up beautifully and wrote a card from all of us. It was later delivered to him Christmas Eve.

A photo of the actual gift.

Fast forward to New Year’s Eve…we get a call saying, “Michael is on his way to Hennessey + Ingalls Bookstore in Santa Monica”. Talin and I made it there just in time before it got crowded with people. There were not many people inside the store when we got there; only the few customers already inside the store before Michael and his security. We stayed far away and acted natural as he shopped…burying our faces in books and such. I think we are the only people in the world who would ignore Michael Jackson at a bookstore.

Well eventually he noticed us and started looking at books in front of us. I think it was getting awkward that we were ignoring him (he knew it was us) so he acknowledged us finally. He reached his hand over the books and said “Hey”. :)

We said our hellos and I wanted to engage in some brief conversation so I asked him about our Christmas gift and if he opened it yet as I’ve heard he kept a box of unopened gifts and letters at times.

“What was it?” he asked.

I was calm as usual but the mixture of people’s stares and other fans overflowing in got me tongued-tied and I gave a horrible description of the gift.

“It was a Gheppetto thing. A snowglobe”, I mumbled.

First of all, Gheppetto from Pinnocchio is nowhere to be found on it. But of course he knew what I was talking about.

“Oohhhhh. The one that lights up and plays music?! I love it. It’s in my bedroom now…thank you, I love it.”

I didn’t even know it played music! Later we checked the website and saw that it played "When You Wish Upon A Star". How wonderful and appropriate we thought. Michael had our Christmas gift sitting in his bedroom. It was a very beautiful feeling and it definitely made my holiday special that year. New Year’s Eve festivities felt especially magical that night.

I wonder where the snowglobe is now…I guess we will never know, at least for now.

XoXo
- Arus