World Shopping Tour Awaits at U.N. Store

So little Jason has decided to pass on the Intergalactic Death Star Mother Ship (some assembly required) for his big Christmas gift this year, and now he’s angling for a genuine Thai elephant bell instead. You tactfully suggest something a bit easier to find, like a Faberge egg with a reproduction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon inside. But no, the kid wants that elephant bell.

Not to worry. All you need to do is drop in at the county’s outpost of the United Nations. You won’t find any ambassadors there, or people to help you hurry up your passport application, but they do have an elephant bell in stock.

In fact, the United Nations Center in Santa Ana features hundreds of gifts from around the globe that are exotic enough to fill up any hard-to-buy-for list and are substantially less expensive than Faberge eggs.

The center, a kind of global gift shop in which the merchandise constantly changes, is operated out of a small store by the county chapter of the United Nations Assn. Most of the proceeds from the sale of each item go to support the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), said Elizabeth Green, a center volunteer.

The center’s principal purpose, she said, is to provide mostly free educational and resource materials about the United Nations for local schools. To pay for that, most of the floor space in the center is taken up by the gift shop, which is open year-round but receives most visitors during holiday shopping time.

“We don’t and can’t compete with the larger stores,” Green said, “because not many people know we’re here. We don’t get any walk-in trade.”

For some shoppers, that may be a good thing because the items in the shop have a short shelf life, she said. They are either unique or nearly so and are gleaned directly from countries around the world by traveling buyers and volunteers.

“There are only one or two or three of any one thing,” Green said, “and before too long, they’re gone.”

Some of the volunteer buyers, such as Green, work in the shop and can often supply detailed information on certain pieces, such as a Swedish Jul bok, a small deer figure made from straw that, according to Christmas legend, brings grain down from the mountains in winter to feed birds in the lowlands.

Elsewhere in the shop are Christmas ornaments, batik and ebony carvings from Africa, as well as native African musical instruments. There are carved wooden boxes in animal shapes from Thailand, weavings and pottery from the Americas plus porcelain, Ural Mountain stone figurines and matroishka stacking dolls from the Soviet Union.

There are cloth dolls made by Philippine nuns and a “frog band”--carved wooden frogs playing musical instruments--from Bali.

Prices range from less than $10 for such items as corn-husk dolls from Czechoslovakia to the $150 to $200 bracket for some ethnic jewelry.

(The elephant bell, incidentally, goes for $31.)

For those who want to be international at a cut rate, the center sells small flags from 153 countries for $1.75 each.

And, in the resource center at the back of the shop, there are a large selection of Christmas cards, ornaments and commemorative plates made for UNICEF.

“Everybody tells us what a fun place they think this is,” Green said. “And it’s more fun now. This is our big time. We just live for Christmas.”

THE UNITED NATIONS CENTER AT A GLANCE

Where: 2428 N. Grand Ave., Suite F, Santa Ana.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Information: (714) 542-9743.