You can find that perfect gift without crossing the river

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by Hanne Armstrong
This Week Staff

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If you find yourself pacing ever more frantically up and down the aisles of large national stores in the weeks before Christmas, it might be time for a change of pace. Coverdale Road in Riverview is home to two shops that may be the antidote to Christmas shopping desperation.

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Stacey Merrigan/This Week

One of many decorated trees at The Twelve Months of Christmas, where you can select handcrafted ornaments from any display for your own Christmas tree.

Stacey Merrigan/This Week

The Twelve Months of Christmas has a large selection of Christmas villages.

Ruth Phillips and daughter Kelli Stevens own and operate Morning Glory Gifts at 402 Coverdale Road, and in the months before Christmas the shop brims over with goodwill and gift ideas for everyone. Webkinz plush toys, Gourmet Village yummies, Jim Shore angels and Santas are just some of the items they carry to fulfil the needs of Christmas shoppers.

Not far away, at 1000 Coverdale Road, you'll find The Twelve Months of Christmas, owned and operated by Carl Hendy and his sister Susan Lorraine Ward. It's Christmas all year long here, with featured items including Department 56 Villages, Snowbabies, Bradford Exchange collectibles, and several articles imported from Germany and Austria.

Both shops occupy former homes, Morning Glory Gifts' being built in 1946, while The Twelve Months of Christmas is Victorian. The original domestic purposes of the shops peep out at customers, providing a great deal of the charming atmosphere of each business.

"Some of our customers are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original owners," says Ruth. "They like seeing what the home has become."

"We've expanded into another room of the house each of the four years we've been around," says Carl. "This year we've doubled our floor-space by expanding upstairs."

Though the two shops carry very different products, both owners agree that the most popular items at this time of year are Christmas tree ornaments. Why are ornaments so popular?

"People keep ornaments from year to year, for decades," Carl explains. "They're reminders of the people who gave them, or the time they were given."

"A lot of grandparents, parents, and god-parents buy one each year for a child," Ruth adds, "so by the time a young person moves away from home he or she has a set of decorations for their own tree."

And tree ornaments come in a myriad of sizes, shapes, and themes. There are curling stones, hockey players, bingo-themed ornaments, as well as more traditional ones. Starting at around $2, you can pay as high as $20 for a tree ornament at Morning Glory Gifts, or up to $150 at Twelve Months of Christmas.

"Sometimes we're surprised at what sells," admits Carl.

What if you simply don't know what you want to buy? Ruth and Carl both help their customers as much as possible to choose the right gift for the right person. Who is it for? How well do you know them? What do they like? What's your price point? Talk to the owners and staff at either shop, and they'll do what they can to make your shopping a success.

"We import blown glass and pewter from Europe," Carl says, "and authentic German nutcrackers. We also have real chicken and goose eggs which have been blown empty and beautifully decorated. We help people find a gift that the recipient will appreciate."

"We try to see what customers are looking for," agrees Ruth. "We talk to them, and point out things from our wide range of gifts. And part of our service is that we provide cello-wrap or tissue and a gift-bag with each gift, so you don't have to go somewhere else to wrap what you just bought."

A valuable word of advice for people who choose to shop at smaller retailers is to buy what you like when you see it. There aren't huge stock-rooms at the backs of these shops, and a week later, your perfect gift may have been bought by some one else. Buy, or have it put aside.

Ruth's eight grandchildren keep alive in her a love and enthusiasm for Christmas. Carl thinks he inherited his passion for the season from his grandmother, and thinks it's genetic, as he sees it in his nieces and nephews as well.

Wherever they got their love of Yule, both Carl and Ruth pass it on warmly and eagerly to all the customers who enter their shops. Visit either or both for a dose of Christmas spirit and check off that list while you're at it.