When Laura Bruce, owner of Caring Transitions in Tampa, met Clara Scroggins, she expected it to be a pretty typical move. What she didn’t know at the time was who she was really meeting – The Queen of Christmas.
Over 66 million Americans buy Christmas ornaments every year to commemorate the year’s events, milestones and memories, but no one rivals the collection of Clara’s which includes over 1,000,000 ornaments from the likes of Hallmark, Versace, Faberge, Waterford and Warhol (some personally signed by the artists).
Her collection began with a small, elegant silver cross she bought 34 years ago after her first husband died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Grief stricken and unable to eat or sleep, she was coerced by a friend to take a shopping trip. She spotted the cross in a jeweler's window. Noticing that it was a second-edition, she launched a nationwide search for the first-edition version, which she eventually tracked to a store in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Christmas always held a special place in Clara’s heart, although she never expected what started as buying a simple silver ornament would turn into a nationwide phenomenon. As Clara’s collection grew and grew, she began touring the country with Hallmark to show off her pieces and speak with collectors, even writing multiple books for collectors to learn more about ornaments’ history and meaning, and prompting younger generations to get involved with ornaments.
As Laura began sorting through Clara’s enormous collection and learning their stories, she quickly learned that for Clara, it’s not about the glitz and glam, but the meaning and significance that each ornament has brought to her and her family’s life, truly commemorating the spirit of Christmas. Clara chose Caring Transitions because she trusted Laura to liquidate her collection with that same spirit.
As Clara’s ornaments begin to be donated and are being prepared for sale at auction, would you be interested in attending the estate sale or online auction to capture the collection first hand? Please fill out the form to the right to get added to our sale announcement list, or contact Laura directly a LBruce@CaringTransitions.com.
The first phase of liquidating the estate is an estate sale on Friday September, 21st and Saturday, September 22nd. To view those details, please visit our View Sales tab.