Best Gift Shop IN PRESTON HOLLOW

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It’s easy to lose track of time when you step inside Sample House & Candle Shop in Preston Oaks shopping center (10720 Preston at Royal). Aromatic candles and intoxicating soaps waft in the air, luring you farther into the store like a cartoon character. But this Preston Hollow shop boasts more than holiday decor, children’s gifts and sassy stationary neatly arranged on vintage tables. Manager Bridget Allen says that it’s the warm and friendly customers that make her job worthwhile. “We end up becoming friends,” she says. Allen has worked for Sample House for 26 years, long before her Preston Oaks shop — one of seven outposts for the longstanding Texasbased chain — opened in 2006. She often runs into regulars. “I have second- and third-generation customers that come back again and again,” she says. Allen says the store is popular because it offers new, seasonal goodies, so there is something fun and different to see every time you go.