Naomi's Nutcrackers
Imagine. You and your wife are coming home from a long trip. When you get home you notice an errant nutcracker sitting jauntily on your table, in its mouth is a note with a letter on it. Strange, you think, but not too strange. That is, until you find the next nutcracker, and the next, each with a note in their mouth. More than a dozen nutcrackers in all, each with a note which when assembled spells NaomisNutcrackers.com. A website where each of the nutcrackers has their own story. And so, from a complex treasure hunt set up by a friend, a nutcracker collection was born and Naomi, COO and co-founder of TomboyX has been collecting nutcrackers ever since.
From Naomi’s collection TomboyX drew inspiration for this year's Nutcracker print which lays out an array of different nutcrackers on a dark background for an instantaneous holiday classic. Below, Naomi tells us about her collection and how nutcrackers are a central part of what makes the holidays so special.
Where did your love of nutcrackers start?
Growing up my parents did not celebrate a lot of holidays, Christmas being one of them. And so I didn't really get to grow up having any of that in my house. Luckily my cousin and her German husband lived nearby, and they celebrated Christmas. So every Christmas I'd go over there and spend some time with them, and they had the most amazing nutcrackers that they got at this little German store in Nyack, New York. When I'd go visit we’d go to the store and I just loved nutcrackers but never really collected them myself.
Then how did the collection begin?
Fran and I were coming back from a trip and I walked into the house, and noticed that there was this nutcracker that I hadn't seen before. And I was like, "okay, that's kind of interesting," and then I went downstairs to go to the bathroom and there was a nutcracker in my shower. And then was like, "game on." We started tearing the house apart. All of a sudden, in the microwave, in the dog bowl, in all these things, there were these nutcrackers. And inside each of the nutcrackers was a rolled-up paper. Eventually we got something like twenty pieces of paper and thirty nutcrackers. And we wound up having to figure out what it spelled, and ultimately what it spelled was "naomisnutcrackers.com."
What makes nutcrackers special to you?
They bring me to a happy place where it was like a real celebration and the joy of being around people celebrating. Anytime I see them I'm automatically just drawn to them, and they're just really fun to look at. I like when they’re a little imperfect or a little broken because it makes me wonder what they’ve been through. I like the idea of them having a story.
Do you see your collection continuing to grow?
Yeah, now people are starting to give them to me, which I absolutely love and Fran hates, which also drives it to be a lot more fun for me.
Do you display your collection?
Oh, I definitely display them. They're kind of everywhere, and they're in whatever nooks and crannies they can be. Fran likes them all in one place so that she can choose to ignore that side of the room, but I really like them everywhere. I think we have something like 33 now.
Can you tell us a little about the nutcrackers inspired the holiday print?
I think that nutcrackers are about having fun, and having these beings around you to kind of keep you company and hopefully make you smile. And just a reminder of holidays and spending time with whoever it is that you want to spend some time with.