You know our little "let's make custom snow globes!" business has come along way, when people start emailing with suggestions to make it even better. One we've heard recently is "can't you add MUSIC to your snow globes?"
Well, no. Not yet, anyway. Can't do it, no way, no how.
The snow domes, water balls, and snow globes that you've seen (and heard) with little wind-up music boxes glued in the base are not made as ours are made: one at a time, by skilled lunatics who have dedicated their lives to the enrichment of others, by taking someone's sweet idea for a snow globe and creating a truly personal, custom world of wonder.
Nope, those snow globes are made in factories on the other side of the globe (and we ain't talking snow globe here, we are talking Mother Earth.) And when some factory decides they want to play "twinkle, twinkle little star" --- well, they are going to order 10,000 "twinkle star" music boxes and make 10,000 identical snow globes, all playing the same song. Same for the "graduation march" or "oh, little playmate, why won't you play with me ...?" Wait. Is that a music box theme, or is that just the endless song the ice cream truck plays in my neighborhood? Oh, well, never mind.
But the idea of Snow Globe Central is to provide a unique product, designed by you, for your friends, families and loved ones. If we DID offer music boxes --- which we assuredly don't at this time -- we'd want to give you a broad selection. That would mean one of our artisans would be SURE that we could get Elvis' "Ain't Nothing But a Hounddog" in a tinny windup, and another artisan might suggest we get a selection of Christmas Carols. That old guy in the back corner? He hums "Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer true. I'm half crazy, all for the love of you ..." also known as the "Bicycle Built for Two" song ... ALL DAY LONG. You can only imagine what would happen if he discovered they made it in music boxes, and he would try to have a group sing-along at lunch. Trust me: not a good thing.
But in order to please even the individual artisans at Snow Globe Central, we'd have to custom order thousands of music boxes, and --- sure as shootin' --- the first order to come in would request a song we'd never considered. Like "Stairway to Heaven" or "Raindrops on Roses" or ... you get the idea. We can hear it now "What do you mean you don't have any Nirvana? Really?" We could never stock enough songs and we'd never guess which songs would be popular AND ... big "AND" ... it would cost an arm, leg and a snow globe to have them created. And something about the uniqueness of each snow globe would be lost.
So, it's not going to happen. Not any time soon. But we helpfully offer this exceptionally cheerful "plan b" for those who enjoy music and snow globes. Get your favorite snow globe. Turn on the radio. Shake the globe and enjoy the experience. If you turned on the radio and got a loud advertisement for car insurance, try a CD or better yet, download your favorite snow-globe shaking songs and create a mix tape. Then you can listen to all the songs all day, and nobody will get "Daisy, Daisy, I'm half crazy, all for the love of you" stuck in your head.
And if you are humming Bicycle Built for Two right now and can't stop? --- well, sorry about that. You get my point.
But we do offer one thing that the big boys overseas don't offer in their snow globes: musical note confetti. When you shake your custom snow globe with musical note confetti, you can almost hear "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" -- can't you?