SPL LIVING
Tiny Winter Wonderland A local family shares holiday cheer(s) with an annual display at 3 Daughters Brewing. BY MARCIA BIGGS What started out decades ago as a family Christmas display in Bruce and Pat Harting’s St. Petersburg garage, now has a life of its own as a starring attraction at one of the city’s largest craft breweries. Every holiday season for the past decade, 3 Daughters Brewing has hosted the Harting’s massive North Pole Winter WonderLand, drawing multi-generational visitors from near and far. Each year the sprawling animated Christmas village with six running model trains, some 340 homes and churches and other buildings, and close to 400 miniature people and animals, takes over two months to erect in the brewery’s main tasting room. To be honest, Bruce confesses he has pretty much lost count of his collection at this point. “We get donations all the time,” he admits, “from a couple pieces to a couple hundred.” The Hartings have a great relationship to the owner of 3 Daughters who is happy to provide space and manpower for building and storing the display, after all he’s their son Mike Harting who came up with the idea of displaying the village soon after the brewery opened in 2013. “After 3 Daughters opened, Mike said let’s do it, let’s move it here,” says Bruce, “so we built two tables and it drew attention. Every year it just got bigger and bigger.” The Christmas village was spread out on two 4x8-foot plywood boards, but as the years went by and more pieces were added, it expanded to four, then six, then eight boards. Now it wraps around the side and back of the tasting room, allowing plenty of space for visitors who often pack the place on weekends, from aging Baby Boomers looking for a bit of nostalgia to young families who view it as a magical playstation from the past. PHOTOS/MARCIA BIGGS
50 StPeteLifeMag.com
November/December 2023
