C :: Accessing Pointers From Other Source Files

I've recently been learning GTK (though this question is not specific to GTK), and came across a situation that I was unsure how to best handle. Essentially, I've defined several pointers in one source file, and I want to access those pointers from other source files.

The structure of my GTK programs generally follow this pattern:

- "main.c": Define the main window and run GTK main
- "create_window.c": Create and arrange widget pointers in the main window
- "program_functions.c": All other source code for the project (several source files in reality)

In "create_window.c", I declare and define all my widget pointers (e.g. label). If I need to modify those widgets in "program_functions.c" for any reason (say, to change the value of a label), I need access to the pointers created in "create_window.c".

My first thought was to create a global struct of pointers in "create_window.c", and extern that struct to the other source files that need access to the pointers. The thing I don't like about this approach is spreading globals across my program.

My second idea was to create access functions in "create_window.c" where the necessary pointers are statically stored. The first time I call this function (immediately after creating a widget), a static copy of that pointer is stored in the function. Each time afterwards when I call that function (from other source files), I simply use that static pointer to access the widget of interest.

Example:
Code: void edit_label_1(GtkWidget *label_set, const char *string)
{
static GtkWidget *label = NULL;

[Code].....

Are either one of the approaches considered acceptable by standard practice?