Long gone are the days of the dedicated department store Santa Claus and lavish Christmas window displays. Instead there are now mall Santas and generic holiday decorations.

If you are above a certain age and grew up in the Lehigh Valley, you probably recall the Christmastime displays at local department stores such as Zollinger’s, Leh’s and Hess’s, in center city Allentown, and Orr’s in downtown Bethlehem.

Many a family made a special trip to downtown Allentown to gaze at the window decorations and to see performances of the “Pip the Mouse” puppet show at Hess’s Ninth and Hamilton store.

“Pip the Mouse before Christmas: A Holiday Puppet Show” weekdays and Saturday, through Jan. 2, Liberty Bell Museum, 622 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, preserves a slice of Christmas past.

“It started with Hess Brothers department store in 1962,” says Liberty Bell Museum tour guide Jerry Still. “There were about 18 sets that were made by Dr. George Creegan. They were in most of the big department stores such as Hess’s, Macy’s, Gimbels, Wanamaker’s. [They were located] as far west as Michigan and as far south as Richmond, Virginia.

“Of all these sets, this is the only one that we know of that’s still functioning. The others have either been torn down, destroyed, whatever.”

The Hess’s “Pip” set is well-travelled throughout Allentown. A few years after the Bon-Ton department store chain purchased Hess’s, it held the last department store “Pip” show in 1975.

“What happened was,” says Still, “It went to the Civic Theatre [of Allentown], so they could refurbish this, and they donated it to the [Allentown Public] Library. It was at the library for two or three years and came here in 2003, and we’ve had it ever since.”

In addition to the original “Pip the Mouse” set, the Liberty Bell Museum is also in possession of the snow-covered Christmas house from Hess’s Toyland display, as well as several animatronic figures.

“Some of the figures like the harlequin, the chimpanzees and the cat doing the ironing are all from Hess Brothers. The rest of the figures came from Dr. George Creegan.”

The Creegan Company, Steubenville, Ohio, was founded by Creegan and closed its doors at the end of 2010. In 2013, a fire destroyed the historic Creegan Company building, which contained many of the original molds, spare parts, puppets, set pieces and other priceless artifacts of the company’s history.

“Pip the Mouse before Christmas: A Holiday Puppet Show,” is held three times daily: 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Monday - Saturday through Jan. 2. A 9:30 a.m. show can be scheduled for groups.

The 15-minute puppet show is followed by a short history of the Liberty Bell and an appearance by a full-size Pip the Mouse.

“Pip the Mouse,” stage manager Stephanie Burke adds, “I love my job, especially this time of year. If one person comes, we’ll do the show.