Park Profile: Jennifer Schuster and Her Nutcrackers

Stories featuring people in and around our community doing their ordinary but extraordinary things.

JoceLynn McFarland, Staff Writer

December 17, 2024

Mr and Mrs Schuster pose with their larger than life nutcracker–one of many in their collection!

Jennifer Schuster is a grandma who loves Christmas and collecting Nutcrackers. Her story starts in 1990 when Jennifer took her mother back to Germany to see her brother whom she hadn’t seen in 19 years.

“My uncle gave me a nutcracker made in Germany so every time I would see a nutcracker, it would remind me of my great visit to Germany with my mom, and meeting my uncle, aunt, and cousins. It all just exploded after that,” said Schuster.

Jennifer’s nutcracker collection around her house. (JoceLynn McFarland)

From that day forward people started gifting her nutcrackers of all sorts.

“My brother in law gave me two elf nutcrackers for watching his granddaughter. My cousins gave me a musical nutcracker for helping them out. My friends gave me cowboy nutcrackers and horse nutcrackers because I am a horse lover,” said Schuster.

Although Jennifer isn’t quite sure she knows how many nutcrackers she has, she thinks she has over 100 nutcrackers.

“My favorite nutcracker is the one my uncle gave me because it means a lot to me. We just had a connection when we met. I could not speak German and he could not speak English, but we seemed to know what each other was thinking,” said Schuster.

Jennifer’s favorite nutcracker. (JoceLynn McFarland)

She recently received The Wizard of Oz collection featuring: Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Lion, and The Scarecrow, and her husband bought her the Mouse King nutcracker, made in Germany, which comes from the original story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

“Each year, my husband takes me to the Nutcracker Village in Steubenville, where they have life size nutcrackers. They have all different kinds like Pizza Nutcracker and Armed Forces Nutcracker. Then we get to go to the Nutcracker shop where there seems like there are over 1000 nutcrackers,” said Schuster.

Jennifer always has a great time going to the village to check out all of the nutcrackers where they now have nutcracker flags, pictures of nutcrackers, and even candy in the shape of nutcrackers.

“My tallest nutcracker is around six feet tall, and my son gets me those types of nutcrackers every year. I now have a total of six that all light up, and the latest one has a globe with the prince and ballast dancers spinning around,” said Schuster.

Everyone has their own sort of quirky collection that they like to accumulate, and Jennifer’s are nutcrackers.

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About the Contributor

JoceLynn McFarland, Staff Writer

JoceLynn McFarland is a staff writer at the Park Press, and this is her second year working in the newspaper as a junior. JoceLynn has written numerous articles about the importance of mental health awareness. She enjoys writing articles that have great importance and should be talked about. Call, text, or chat: 1-844-HELP4WV or www.help4wv.com if you or anyone you know is struggling. You are not alone. Outside of the Park Press, JoceLynn is a decade-long Swiftie whose favorite eras include 1989, Reputation, and Folklore. The lyric "Past me, I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things, your nemeses will defeat themselves before they get the chance to swing," from "long story short" is her favorite.