Holiday

[Estellee]

Those open houses sound great, I havn't heard of any in my area yet but it sounds like there are quite a few treasures waiting to be found. @SactoSue @Sakuya 

[Marsha2003]

I attended my local garden center's big Christmas open house last week.  I had stopped going for the last few years because they no longer offered the unusual decorations that they did once upon a time.  While I enjoyed walking around to see the various displays, once again I was disappointed at the lack of special choices.  They didn't offer anything that you can't find from other vendors.

I think the original owner must have died or sold out because he traveled to the European Christmas shows and brought back the most wonderful decorations.  Now, the offerings are from the same vendors like RAZ that you find elsewhere.

[SactoSue]

I think it's interesting you bring this up, @Marsha2003 

If you are a business that relies on holiday shopping income, it must be tempting to just order your Christmas Shop inventory from a catalog of hundreds of mass-produced items of brand names that you can find on Amazon, on numerous  holiday vendor sites, and in big box stores.

It takes something special for an owner to personally shop for unique items.  I agree it makes all the difference.  I do find my locally-owned and established garden center has unique hand-crafted quality items and small art pieces that make it all worthwhile. 

I was doing some fall garden shopping and I saw the same Green Grinch tree in the big box stores, in my local garden center, and on Amazon.  It didn't make me feel it was very special, nor did it make me want to buy any of the branded ornaments.