By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
GLASGOW — One local business has many different decorating options for Christmas and store employees have had a busy season helping customers find just the right holiday items to match their needs.
Judy Thomas has been the manager of the local Southgate Kerr’s Wholesale & Florist Shop for 11 years. Even though Thanksgiving and Christmas are busy times, Thomas’ hectic schedule actually began a little earlier in the year.
She said getting ready for the store’s open house Nov. 9-11 was the crazy part because “you’re on a deadline. All the trees have to be up and decorated and you have to have so many arrangements.”
Early each fall, store employees begin receiving shipments and setting up displays for the holiday season.
Thomas said it takes approximately six weeks, from the end of September through October to set up all the store displays. She said the timetable is based according on when they get all the merchandise in and start “phasing it through.”
“It takes us longer to unpack and get each individual piece marked than it does actually to do this,” she said as she gestured to all the displays. “Because these (ornaments) all come packaged in little bitty plastic packages and I take every one of them out and price them.”
She said setting up the trees is much easier than in the past.
“Now it’s not half as bad as it used to be because we used to have to put the lights on the trees too,” she said. “Now all but two or three of the trees are pre-lit. That’s wonderful.”
Thomas had more help in the store during the fall, but now she and another store employee, Philip Holder, are taking care of holiday business.
Holder is a local artist and has worked in the store for the last two years. He said he has probably made several hundred bows over the last couple of months trying to keep up with the demand.
Business was steady on a recent day at the store with customers coming in to take advantage of the 50 percent off ornaments and decorations that had just been marked down.
Rows of Raggedy Ann dolls peered out at customers from the end of the cash wrap as they entered. Thomas stood behind them and waited on several people.
Customer Judye Hafling came in and asked about some peacock decorations. Thomas showed her the beautifully iridescent blue and green feathered ornaments and garland festooned with matching beads.
Thomas was kept busy ringing up people at the cash register and figuring in the discount amounts. At the same time, she managed to work in explaining to Hafling the steps of making a large gold mesh bow and garland to go on her Christmas tree.
“The top of it ... you make kind of like a bow and wire it,” she told Hafling as she demonstrated with the mesh netting. “There’s three big puffs in each section at the top of the tree ... and then you take it and pull it. You wire that together. Put this at the top, then weave it in around the greenery through your tree branches and fold them around it. Take it back into it a little bit. Tuck it into the branches then bring it back out.”
Thomas made quick work of the bow, but then she had lots of practice.
“People say I make it look easy,” she said. “But I’ve been doing it for years and years.”
She said she has shown many people how to wrap ribbons in their trees and how to make bows in the past and some catch on to the technique better than others.
“This year is the first big year we did the netting and it’s wonderful,” she said. “The average person can do it.”
When asked what her favorite thing to work on is, she said, “making the wreaths.”
“I guess I’m wore out with trees,” she said.
Thomas said her most popular trees this year have been the flocked ones. People seemed to like the red and white ones as well, she said, and the Western theme has been a big seller too. She said the store bought a blue tree for a specific purpose.
“We bought that for UK fans then couldn’t find any UK ornaments,” she laughed.
People remain unsure about the black tree in the store, however. Thomas said it would be great to set up for Halloween with orange ornaments and then transition it into Christmas with red, white and silver ornaments against a red wall.
Of all the trees in the store this year, she said her personal favorite was the one with teal and red decorations.
“I like teal,” she said. “The teal and red one had teal birds and red birds and peacock feathers. It was beautiful.”
Thomas tends to be more traditional when decorating at home.
“I still love the good old traditional Santa Clauses,” she said. “I do my family tree in Santa Clauses.”
The most unusual thing she could think of when asked about customers’ requests was having to figure out how to decorate a barn.
“You can’t have an itty-bitty wreath on a huge barn,” she said.
Even though the Christmas season is busy, Thomas said the craziest time is actually in May with proms and Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.
“You should see us then,” she said. “It’s gets really wild in here.”
