Strolling through the Christmas Market at Mercado de San Juan de Dios in San Miguel de Allende is a lot like rooting through the boxes of holiday decorations in your grandmother’s attic.

Amid all the tinsel and strings of lights and shiny garlands and Manger figurines there is a lot of cool stuff that would look great on your tree or mantle or coffee table. Some of the designs look unchanged over the decades.

I’ll bet you could process the whole history of Christmas ornamentation in a walk around the Mercado.

We were on a mission this morning — find just the right strand of lights to hang on the second-floor balcony overlooking the street. It seems so bare after we took down the flag of Mexico after the Independence celebration, then the geranium garland after the Day of the Dead celebration. It needs a little cheery holiday pizzazz.

I was especially taken with the selection of gowns in which our neighbors will be dressing the nearly life-size dolls of the baby Jesus. It is a very touching tradition to see so many people walking to the Churches cradling the plaster figurines dressed in glorious raiments worthy of a King for their annual blessing.

Our Christmas tree is a bejeweled thing made of shiny tin, and we love it, but seeing some of the gorgeous bulbs and globes and stars and other decorations had me kind of wishing for an old-fashioned fir. Maybe we can hang bulbs in some of the climbing vines in the courtyard.

Here are some photos taken during this morning’s steady drizzle. Shops were just opening up. They are inside the cathedral-like Mercado and in booths surrounding the building. It must have gotten a lot busier. Google Maps identifies the Mercado, between Avenida Guadalupe and the Templo de San Juan de Dios, as being “As busy as it gets.”

I’m not entirely sure what that means but I’ll bet that stuff doesn’t sit long on the shelves as Christmas approaches.

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