No, it’s just the staff and I getting ready for Christmas in July. It’s going to be in the high 80’s today and we are going to begin the process of re-arranging the store and sorting through the holiday fabrics for our Christmas in July event that starts on Monday the 21st.
When you own a quilt shop Christmas comes THREE times each year. The first event is in January when Sales Reps from every company clamor for your attention and request the earliest appointment to show you the “new” Christmas collections. You’ve barely finished packing away the garland from the previous Christmas and they want you to get all excited about doing the whole thing over again.
Christmas #2 comes in late May and June when all of those bolts that you ordered begin to arrive. In our store we take all fabric “when ready” meaning the company can ship it as soon as it is available. Almost all of our holiday fabrics are in the shop by mid June, right before our annual Shop Hop. This year we decided to do something different. Instead of putting them out on the shelf as the bolts arrive, we stockpiled them in our very small storage space (which is currently bursting at the seams). This allows us to present the entire Christmas assortment all at one time – beginning next Monday, July 21st. Our customers will have EVERYTHING to choose from instead of wondering what might be coming later. We also have all of the pieces that we ordered at the same time. No one has “cherry picked” the theme prints before the coordinates arrived.
While it might be hard to get into the mood to shop for Santas and snowflakes when the weather outside is screaming “take me to the pool”, it’s a good idea to crank up the air conditioning and concentrate on what you are going to need when Christmas #3 rolls around later this year. Just start humming Jingle Bells…… it helps.
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