Special Occasions

Spotlight on Christmas (From page 77) challenges with breakage, all areas sell well and are always themed to a specific type of ornament. Cookenour elaborated, “Right now we have a candy and cookies-themed tree, a patriotic tree, those are the types we use. That way, when someone asks for help finding a kind of ornament, we can lead them to a specific destination. We don’t have to walk all around the store unless someone wants something vague, like an undescribed cat ornament, and then we have to remember where all the different types of cat ornaments might be.”

She added that the only area that changes throughout the year in full is the front window. “There we change themes frequently. We just changed it to Easter, with egg ornaments and things like that. After the time for a seasonal display passes, we replace the items around the store by area. That window changes every three or four months, but not on a regular schedule.”

At the Snow and Ice Christmas and Gift Store in Harrisonburg, Va., Owner Dustin Kline related that his top-sellers are themed ornaments, ornaments with names on them, and Department 56 villages. “The villages have been popular for a while now, and the ornaments with names have always been pretty much my number-one seller,” Kline stated. “The themed ornaments that do well for us tend to relate to personal interests, whether its soccer or farming, new babies, just-married couples, or right now, cardinals. It’s cardinal season here, and we have had a stronger, snowier winter, so people come in and talk about how beautiful it is to see them again. They’re our state bird as well, so both contribute to them being popular right now.”

Kline does much of the display work in the store himself, taking turns with his sister. “We do not use a lot of trees; we are kind of the opposite of most Christmas stores. When we fill our trees with ornaments its counterintuitive for us; they don’t sell as well.” He noted that “My customers tend to find the items easier if they are hanging on hooks on the wall, where they can view them all by categories such as farm animals, cardinals, what have you, more easily. We do some themed trees for show, but as far as selling the ornaments, they do better for us on hooks and racks.”

And as far as pandemic changes go, Kline said, “We have been doing more social media and some curbside pick-up, but we do not have an online store set up yet. We have been getting some sales through Facebook and by phone, and we are hoping to get an online store going.” However, he explained that “The volume of items we have, thousands and thousands of ornaments, honestly the workload to get those less expensive items onto the website and photographed is so great that moving in that direction is a very slow process.”

Regardless of the type of display technique used or the most popular holiday products, Christmas stores nationwide continue to put some ho-ho-ho into shopping, even in pandemic times. It appears that Santa has adjusted very well to wearing a facial mask when necessary. ❖