Imagine nearly two football fields packed with everything Christmas — 50,000 different gift items, trims, decorative pieces and ornaments. That’s Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, where the halls are decked year-round and nearly 300 decorated and lit trees of all sizes fill a factory-sized barn.
The 2.2-acre store is a destination for travelers, with plenty making an annual pilgrimage to the farm town. A greeter invites guests into Bronner’s, where a cafe serves light lunches, treats and snacks.
It’s all about the experience
“Families tell us, ‘My grandma and grandpa brought us here every year, so I’m bringing my kids, too,’” says Lori Libka, communications assistant and longtime associate of 26 years. “The people who work here enjoy helping customers make Christmas memories, and we get to know them and welcome back again and again.”
Hospitality, joy and wonder are running themes at Christmas shops across the country that specialize in this magical time of year — as year-round businesses.
Cue up the holiday music, and the mood is contagious, says Heather Osborne, manager of the Santa Claus Christmas Store in Santa Claus, Indiana.
Yes, there is such a place! The name of the town alone draws visitors who notice signs while traveling the highway and take the exit to find out what’s there.
From horses to holidays to happy places, one of the biggest assets for ornaments is they are customizable and can commemorate any occasion.
Within the town that has a population of less than 3,000, there’s one stoplight, one Christmas shop and attractions in Santa Claus Museum & Village — home to an 1880 church, post office and 1935 Santa Claus statue.
“The name of the town definitely sets us apart,” Osborne says, adding that once visitors discover the store, many return every year. Santa Claus Christmas Store makes shopping an event to remember with its Santa’s Cottage, where the jolly old elf rolls out the red carpet in July and October through the holiday for souvenir photos. (The current Santa is in his third season.)
From special-themed trees to Christmas collectibles, decor and gifts galore, the product possibilities are a mile long — much like an eager child’s gift wish list.
“This year, we bought 9,100 different items to sell,” says Rob Marshall, owner of The Christmas Mouse, with shops along the eastern seaboard, including several in The Outer Banks.
With the heavy beach tourist demographic his shops serve, once customers step out of the heat and into an air-conditioned wonderland brimming with ornaments, the spirit moves from sand to snow globes.
Shops that sell Christmas successfully set the mood.
Marshall says, “You basically enter a forest of trees and lights.”
Decking the halls
Themed trees are a display foundation at The Christmas Mouse, and complementary products build from motifs like nutcrackers, gingerbread, beach, sports, The Grinch and popular children’s characters like Bluey.
“We start with the tree and then a pegboard of ornaments and other “sit arounds” like figurines, and then we blend it into another tree and peg board, and it flows this way around the store,” describes Marshall.
This way, customers tour the shop and take in all of its offerings, with holiday products that capture the attention of a demographic spanning from toddlers to great-grandparents.
Bronner’s has a decorating team of 12 associates who dress up and light several hundred trees that are rotated year-round. “They’re being changed up all the time,” Libka says.
Major displays at entrances and exits deliver the wow factor guests expect when they approach the Christmas wonderland. There are literally layers of holiday inside. Libka’s advice to customers: “You need to walk around about three different times to look at everything at eye level, then see what’s on the catwalks, and the third time so you can shop and not miss anything.”
Christmas Vacation Shop owner Ellie Oczkowski finds inspiration for ornaments in family time.
It’s a good thing Bronner’s provides wheelchairs at no charge and strollers for a $2 rental fee — with the gift of a $2 coupon with a $10 purchase.
“We make it as family friendly as possible, and when you come in the door, there are stars or snowflakes on the floor leading you to restrooms if you’ve been on the road,” says Libka. “There is a greeter at every entrance to answer questions.”
At Santa Claus Christmas Store, products are categorized into departments, with a popular one being gingerbread.
“The clay-dough gingerbread houses are the biggest seller in that section, and we have decorative trees with candy and gingerbread scenes,” Osborne says, adding that those accompany wall decor with candy themes that sell. “Gingerbread is very popular this year and that section has been growing.”
Other departments in the shop are theme-based and focus on snowmen, Santa Claus, gnomes, nativities, snow globes and lanterns. “We stock a variety of items in each category to give people a selection so it’s easy to find things to buy,” says Osborne.
Ornamental mainstays
They’re easy-to-pack, palm-sized reminders of vacation memories — or they celebrate favorite hobbies, pastimes, teams, colleges and milestones. Specialty ornaments are the focus at The Christmas Mouse, which has 33,000 items for sale in its stores. About 80 percent of the stock consists of ornaments.
“Say folks are in the Outer Banks and they went hang gliding over Jockey’s Ridge — and they say, ‘It would be cool to have a hang glider ornament,’ so they can pick that up here and enjoy it on their tree,” Marshall says.
Themes span a full spectrum of interests, from ballerinas to NFL players, pickleball and car keys to commemorate earning a driver’s license. There are coastal motifs, too, considering the shop’s location: lighthouses, anchors, crabs, lobsters, starfish, driftwood pieces and sea turtles. “We also have traditional themes like silver and gold, red and green, glass ornaments and old world Christmas,” Marshall adds.
At his shops, tourists are the main demographic and packability is a consideration. “Ornaments easily fit into a suitcase,” he points out.
Personalization is in-demand. At The Christmas Shop and General Store in Manteo, North Carolina, selecting an ornament with an inscribed name and date is a beach vacation tradition for many customers. “It helps them remember their trips over the years,” says owner Gary Chatnik, who operates five year-round coastal Christmas shops and three pop-up shops in malls during the holidays.
Chatnik adds, “Ornaments are a great add-on to a gift card and make for a special, easy gift.”
Manteo, North Carolina-based The Christmas Shop gives the holiday a coastal flair.
One-of-a-kind ornaments also resonate with customers, says Ellie Oczkowski, owner of Christmas Vacation Shop in Bar Harbor, Maine. She sold ornaments at a mall stand before opening her seasonal store on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. Searching for ornaments and gifts that reflected the region, she came up empty-handed and decided to make her own. Now, other local artisans, some of them customers, contribute their artistic flair to her growing inventory of handmades. Bestsellers include hand-painted lobster claw ornaments.
“These are gifts that reflect a moment in time, an experience, time with family, joy — so that is the driving force behind what inspires the ornaments,” says Oczkowski.
Stockings for Christmas
Despite a general return to normal supply-chain activity, Rob Marshall shifted his inventory mindset to a see it, like it, buy it all year mentality.
This requires more space for warehousing, but ensures he’ll have products to place on displays during the busy season without running out. Typically, he held about 3,000 items in a central warehouse. “Now, I have 5,100,” he says.
“Buying used to be more seasonal, but with the lack of goods a couple years ago, I said, ‘If it’s a good item and the vendor has it, we need to have it. It changed our buying patterns and warehousing significantly.”
The same is true at Santa Claus Christmas Store. Osborne mostly buys at AmericasMart in Atlanta. “Then we have shipments come in throughout the season,” she says. Shipments are stored in a warehouse and the store has several stockrooms. “It definitely helps having those stock rooms full so we can bring out products when the floor starts getting empty.”
During summer, the store focuses on gradually getting all of its products out for display before the holiday rush. “That way, all we have to do is restock and help customers because we get so busy,” says Osborne.
Equally important is “stocking” extra helpers during the busy season at Bronner’s, which has been a challenge amid the labor shortage. Typically, the business goes from 250 employees that are part-time and full-time to up to 750 workers during the high season leading up to Christmas.
“We do some local advertising and we have families where mom is retired and comes into work during the season, or they refer other family members,” Libka says. “We are not quite back to normal yet with our staffing.”
As for labor, Oczkowski focuses on creativity after the holiday and through early spring since her shop is not winterized. “That’s when I make ornaments and decor, so I’m not in the brick-and-mortar during winter, but I am creating and designing year-round,” she says, adding that the business of making holidays merry is “very humbling.”
