House of Tradition has been ready for the Christmas rush all year.

The year-round Christmas merchandise shop offers a plethora of ornaments and unique gifts, including Santas, nutcrackers, dolls, jewelry, candles and nativity sets.

“The village is probably the biggest thing; that’s our bread and butter. That’s our most important line,” said manager Debbie Elder. “Average houses start at $70 now and go up until $140.”

Village accessories, such as trees and lights start at $15.

Debbie Elder

“People can buy houses and accessories and they’re a beautiful holiday decoration,” Elder said.

Ornaments and other gifts are sold from $1 to $700. Items go on sale, especially before and after Thanksgiving.

Elder said House of Tradition is special because its merchandise is not all from China.

“We have unique items — stuff not found in Wal-Mart,” she said. “We’re one of the few stores left with the kind of stuff we have.

“I got to go to Germany for the first time this year and got beautiful nutcrackers and smokers … just beautiful ones,” Elder said.

Ornaments are always popular at Christmastime and make great gifts.

“A lot of people just get ornaments and give everybody one for the holidays,” she said. “We have some that are inexpensive — $10, but we have some that are $60 or $70.”

Elder said shoppers can’t go wrong with candles and posters.

“We have candles made in our country and candles from Ohio. We have posters from America, made in America. We’re trying to get stuff made in our country,” she said.

“We’ve been affected [by the economy] like everyone else has,” she said. “The key is to get new customers to start the [village] collections.”

House of Tradition focuses on its customers.

“It’s not a mall, so they don’t have to fight traffic,” she said. “They get free gift wrapping and personal service. They can walk in and pick something and walk out.”

Although the shop is usually closed on Sundays, it is open on Sundays for the holidays.

House of Tradition is located on 111 E. Second St. in Perrysburg. For more information, e-mail houseoftradition@sccglobal.net.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Holidays.
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