The Collector: Remembering travels, one Christmoose ornament at a time

Imagine it’s a sunny spring day. You’ve traveled to a new place, and you’re shopping for a souvenir.

Not just any keepsake – a Christmas ornament.

Not just any kitschy bauble, but one that features a moose, or as Angela Schneider calls them, “Christmoose.”

That’s the challenge this collector has embraced.

“It’s an evolving project, and it started with bears,” she said. “In 2007, I went camping for the first time in Jasper, Alberta. I saw a bear ornament in a gift shop.”

She thought it was a fun way to commemorate her maiden camping adventure.

While attending the Calgary Stampede, she searched for a new ornament to add to her collection. She found one that perfectly captured the spirit of the event.

Last week, Schneider plucked it from her Christmas tree in her Spokane Valley home.

“It’s a drunken moose,” she said.

Indeed, the inebriated ungulate sports a red Christmas ball on his nose and looks a bit worse for the wear.

“If there’s one thing you do at the Stampede, it’s get drunk,” explained Schneider.

From there, she was hooked on finding more moose (meese?) to add to her collection, which numbers around 15.

“It’s a travel collection,” she said. “Now, I go places with the intent to find a Christmoose. It’s challenging because I don’t travel around Christmas.”

One of her trips took her from her home in Alberta to Seattle in 2009, with a brief stop in Spokane. That’s when she met her husband, Chip Schneider.

Her favorite ornament comes from Kimberley, British Columbia, and it commemorates their first date on Jan. 22, 2011.

“Kimberley is halfway between Spokane and Alberta, so he met me there.”

This Christmoose looks like an Old World Santa, opening his bag of gifts.

During a stay at Hill’s Resort in Priest Lake, she discovered a moose on a snowmobile, goggles over its eyes and its front hooves clad in green mittens.

A trip to Nova Scotia netted her a moose in an ugly Christmas sweater, balancing an ornament on its nose.

While visiting Prince Edward Island, she found a Christmoose stuck in one of Santa’s red boots and clutching a wrapped package. At some point, the poor fellow suffered a broken arm, which matches his rather pained expression.

“They don’t always travel well,” she said.

Like the drunken Calgary Stampede moose, many of her ornaments reflect the town where she purchased them.

On a recent outing to Bigfork, Montana, she came home with a rowboat bedecked with Christmas lights. A moose is at the oars (wearing a life jacket, of course) with a bunny and a raccoon keeping him company.

Nestled alongside Flathead Lake, Bigfork is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts, and boating and fishing opportunities abound.

In Leavenworth, Washington, she found a moose on skis clutching an ornament. He’s wearing a sweater with a sparkling Christmas tree on it.

She marked a trip to Glacier National Park with the purchase of a Christmoose wearing a jaunty peppermint candy as a collar.

Schneider learned the hard way to look for ornaments that have the site’s name on them. The origin of a moose with dangling legs and sleigh bells around its neck is a mystery.

“I lost his location sticker,” she said.

She knows exactly where she found two similarly posed Christmoose wearing festive stocking caps and scarves. They’re posed behind signs announcing Lake Louise and Sandpoint, respectively.

A drive to Nelson, British Columbia, in 2015, provided another memorable addition.

“I got my K-1 (fiancée visa), and we took a day trip to Nelson.”

There she found an odd couple ornament – an elk and a moose holding a Christmas tree.

Schneider, a part-time copy editor for The Spokesman-Review, is a professional photographer and owns Big White Dog Photography.

Her frequent travel companion is her Maremmano-Abruzzese sheepdog, Bella, and before Bella, there was Shep.

His loss still brings tears.

But her Christmoose collection offers a connection to him that she can hold in her hands while she holds Shep in her heart.

“It’s the memories,” she said. “The most important ones are the ones I got when my dogs were with me.”