Deck the Halls, This Store is Jolly
Clap and he flings his plastic pink body into a tight sit-up. Move and he swirls his jolly hips in a hypnotic dance. Walk and his glittery snowman neighbors burst into “Frosty the Snowman.”
It’s almost six months before Santa makes any lists, slips down any chimneys, delivers any toys or chunks of coal. Right now he’s on the beach, frolicking with angels and nutcrackers in nearly every corner of K. Kringle’s Christmas & Holiday Shoppe in St. Pete Beach.
Amy Masterson and her mother, Cheryl Algrim, are nestled in a corner of the store, a year-round Christmas carnival of blinking lights and moving parts. In short-sleeves shirts and crisp cotton shorts, they, too, are varying shades of pink and red.
Amy, 38, holds a shiny brown football ornament. The hollow glass ball swings in the air-conditioned breeze. She’s looking for a tree decoration for a son with quarterback dreams. But she’s not sure this is the right one.
Her mom Cheryl, 57, isn’t looking at the sports ornaments. A beautician in their hometown of Janesville, Wis., she wants a hairdresser ornament. She walks over to Amy, who holds the ball out for her to see.
“I think it’s cute,” Cheryl says. Amy isn’t so sure, and she looks back to the wall. It is a swinging wave of dangling Christmas dreams.
There is an allure of childhood nostalgia in a simple ball of shiny metal and glued-on glitter. And shoppers are willing, even in July, to spend their time and money in pursuit of the holiday spirit. One night earlier this week, Amy pulled her burgundy Suburban into the store’s parking lot. She and her mom looked at the Christmas village window displays and checked the hours. Then they planned a trip for an afternoon when Amy’s husband could take care of their three sons.
“One thing with shopping with Mom, everything’s a secret, ” Amy says. Her mom laughs.
Thirty minutes into their visit, they are up to their elbows in Christmas. Bits of gold glitter stick to Cheryl’s chin. Red and green bits shine under Amy’s nose.
Still holding the football, Amy mutters. There is an empty evergreen waiting at home.
Amy bought her childhood home from her parents. When she was small, her mom decorated for all the holidays, and now Amy has a fake tree in her dining room year-round. She decorates the tree for July Fourth, Easter, St. Patrick’s, Valentine’s, Halloween and Christmas. When she gets home from her yearly beach trip, she’s going to cover the tree with miniature chalkboards and artificial apples to celebrate the start of the school year.
“That’s the one I like,” Amy’s mom encourages as she studies the football ornament. “You know me and sparkles.”
Convinced, she puts the football on top of the pastel bunny ornaments and a feathered Native American figurine in her shopping basket. This is her second trip. Another basket waits on the check-out counter, itself a sea of Santa pins, Santa figurines, nativity scenes and bubble wrap.
Debbie Hartigan, the store’s owner, and her daughter unwrap nativity scenes and pink fabric balls at the cash register. The store and four storage units are filled with ornaments, but there are more. On Monday, a freight truck delivered more than 200 boxes of decorations.
“You could spend a day in here, really,” Amy says. “It’s just nuts.”
There are cowboys, chili peppers, garlanded Schnauzers and Labradors, a pager with a CALL SANTA text message, a red-tipped glass cigar, Halloween villages and fake tombstones.
Then there are the merry men: rock climbing Santa, beach Santa (on a raft with a bucket of brown bottles in ice), dulcimer-playing Santa, shamrock Santa and motorcycle Santa wearing a leather jacket. There’s the flamingo-drawn sleigh, bikini-clad flamingos in Santa hats, marshmallow snowmen carrying “Kiss Me S’more!” signs, beach chairs and sun umbrellas.
Amy has to be selective. Rubbermaid boxes -- one for each holiday -- sit in her basement and barn. They hold a lot, she says.
Decorating takes dedication. She squeezes it in between mothering her sons and working at the General Motors plant. She tightens front seats full-time on a Suburban assembly line. Her job, though boring, she says, helps pay for the decorations. She caught the bug from her mother.
“Christmas, you might as well figure on two, three weeks to get the house decorated,” Amy’s mom says. “I think everybody likes to decorate, really.”
Though Amy and Cheryl have been to St. Pete Beach before, it’s the first time in the store. The owners moved nearly a year ago to one of the busiest corners on the beach. An informal entrance to the island, the corner of Blind Pass Road and 75th Avenue swarms with cars on a mid-July afternoon.
The move worked and business is up.
Debbie says Amy and Cheryl are typical customers. The two wander around the shop, laughing and giggling over things they find. But, Debbie adds, most people don’t leave a tree up all year long.
After more than an hour, Amy and Cheryl walk through the crowded aisles to the cash register.
“You’re looking a little skimpy there,” Debbie teases Cheryl, who slides her basket on the counter.
“I can’t keep up with her, anyway,” she says, now teasing her daughter Amy.
Debbie rings up the purchases. Out come a handful of glass bunny decorations, a snowman table centerpiece and the Native American figurine, along with the more traditional tree ornaments. Their haul is packed into the back of the Suburban. In addition to the items for their own homes, the shopping bags contain three birthday presents and two Christmas gifts. And the football.
Together, the bill tops $500. But there’s still 170 shopping days left.
