Walking into the new Christmas Store that opened in Sparwood last Wednesday is like walking into a miniature Santa’s workshop.
Volunteers from the Elk Valley Thrift Store greet you into a veritable explosion of tinsel, garland, twinkly lights, miniature trees, train sets, holiday mugs and every other Christmas-related item you could possibly imagine.
Image: S. Kucharski
A snowman in the corner of the room will even serenade you with Christmas carols throughout your entire shopping experience.
The idea was born from thrift store volunteer Lynn Cornell who brought her vision of a Christmas store to life this year.
Cornell explains that when the thrift store first began collecting Christmas-related donations in January, the idea was to store it and eventually open a Christmas store.
An entire room was stacked waist-high with boxes and it took Cornell a full six weeks to set up the new shop adjacent to the original Elk Valley Thrift Store.
Image: S. Kucharski
“Our vision was just the front of the store,” laughed Cornell as that idea quickly dissipated with the overwhelming amount of Christmas items they had.
Katrin Taylor, another thrift store volunteer, noted the uniqueness of the store.
“We thought this would be something really special for the valley,” said Taylor. “This is something the valley has never seen. And it’s good stuff. Everything works, everything’s got batteries in it and there have been hours and hours of work gone into this. And all of the money will go back into the community.”