A while back I posted about the nutcrackers in Luverne. A local retired teacher/amateur historian donated her collection of several thousand nutcrackers to the local museum. The Chamber of Commerce jumped on the idea of nutcrackers as a marketing ploy, and obtained funding to erect the world’s tallest nutcracker at the I90- Highway 75 exit. It was designed to stand more than 70 feet in the air.

After months of waiting, all the pieces of the tall nutcracker have been delivered from their manufacturer in Utah, and sufficiently high lifts have arrived to erect the pieces. I took a photo yesterday at the site:

There continues to be some mild controversy over the wisdom of the nutcracker motif as a town symbol, but many businesses on Main St. have put nutcracker placards outside their doors. The one below is outside the Green Earth Players office, a local theatre company. I think it must date from when they put on A Christmas Story.

Other entities have commissioned artists to construct nutcracker statues with different motifs around town. The one below is in honor of hunters:

Other statues honor women WWII service personnel and factory workers, as well as farmers.

As for Betty, the woman who started it it all, she is 95 and still working at the museum. Grandson and I ran into her the other week. She was somewhat in a tizzy as there were nutcrackers in storage due to getting new display cases and she was eager to get them unpacked. There are a little over 7000 at the museum now. I posted a somewhat older video to give an idea of the collection.

We haven’t any nutcracker placards or statues outside our house, but if we did, they would have to symbolize terriers or musicians.

What motif would you choose for a nutcracker placard or statue outside your house?