I LOVE Christmas! The only way I can begin to explain my excitement about Christmas is to say think of Will Ferrell's character in Elf. That's me, except I don't eat syrup on spaghetti, or drink coffee, or sing, but I digress. I do collect Christmas ornaments and Dept 56 villages and I start burning Christmas fragrance candles in November. Last year's tree was over 6 feet wide and it was so heavy with ornaments we had to tie it off at the trunk and anchor it to the wall in two places. Does that help you to understand the utter obsession? Naturally, I'm infatuated with this store!
They have the largest selection of Christmas ornaments I've ever seen, and it's everything from expensive, intricate ornaments to tacky, gaudy ornaments. They have Christoper Radko and Kurt Adler and Margaritaville ornaments, as well as ornaments for every hobby or interest you could possibly have. Of course they have some for baby's first Christmas, and couple's first Christmas, and one for a newly divorced person. Now you know exactly what to get your sister after she ditches that brother-in-law you never could stand in the first place. We bought a really unique jelly fish ornament, a Callaghan's Irish Social Club ornament that benefited the Goodwill Easterseals, and Christmas fragrance wax melts made by a local candle company.
This store probably has the largest selection of Dept 56 villages I've ever seen. I collect the Dickens Village and I've been debating incorporating the Christmas in the City Village in with it. They carry both, and after examining the sizes, I'm convinced I could totally pull it off. I'm going for a village collection that's reminiscent of Mobile. In addition to those and the Snow Village and New England Village, which also has fall accessories, they also carry the Dept 56 Margaritaville Village, Jack Daniels Lynchburg Village, Downton Abbey Village, and villages from the movies Elf, A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation, complete with Cousin Eddie's RV. Eeeek!!!
They have a layaway that starts in January and runs through the first part of December, so if you want several pieces and don't want to fork out all the dough at once, you could put them on layaway and pay them off over the course of 11 months.
They also sell a lot of collectibles like old school Mickey Mouse ceramics and old toys. It's a bit nostalgic to just walk through and see all the things that you loved as a child. It feels like walking through a museum of your childhood or taking a pleasant little stroll down memory lane.
I don't know why I waited so long to go to this shop, but I can see it becoming a monthly occurrence for me. I'm already planning my next visit! read more