‘People love Christmas,’ and they get it year-round at Montreal’s Noël Éternel

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As Caroline Doucet walks through Noël Éternel, the cosy Christmas store where she works in Old Montreal, customers shuffle in searching for specific items.

One woman visiting from out of town asks for Montreal-themed ornaments. An older man is looking for a pint-sized Christmas tree: He recently moved into a residence, he says, and needs to downsize this season.

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On a busy day, the store sees up to 2,000 customers. It’s open year-round, meaning it welcomes people even in the scorching heat of Montreal summers.

“A lot of people would think it’s absurd to run a business around a one-day holiday,” says Doucet, the store’s director of operations. “But it works. People love Christmas.”

In its 28th year and the only year-round Christmas store in Montreal, Doucet credits the store’s success to the holiday’s popularity and the shop’s location.

Being in tourist-heavy Old Montreal, many people will visit throughout the year  to bring something back with them as a souvenir. The store also makes it a point to have something available for everyone, Doucet says, no matter their traditions or backgrounds.

“We try to fulfil every type of wish that someone could have,” says Doucet, who has a deep knowledge of the holiday and a cheerful demeanour to match.

“There are a lot of people who don’t have a Christian background but enjoy celebrating Christmas,” she adds. “It’s more about that feeling of gathering with your family, sharing warm moments and creating new memories.”

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The store is stocked with artisanal and handmade decorations, but also more commercial items from the Peanuts comic strip or Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

There are traditional Christian nativity scenes, imported products from Germany, handmade items from Russia celebrating Father Frost and ornaments painted in the Chinese Ne’Qwa art style.

“We also definitely have lots of Santas and different representations of Santa,” Doucet says. “I believe enormously in diversity in Christmas and representation. The holidays are for everyone.”

As one might expect for a year-round Christmas store, business ebbs and flows with the seasons. From January to June, Doucet says, the store is “a bit of a Christmas museum” while she’s busy placing orders and planning for the next winter.

As tourism peaks in the summer, things start picking back up.

“When it’s blazing hot, we make sure it’s nice and crispy cool in the store,” Doucet says. “We become a nice kind of frozen oasis for people to visit, get a touch of Christmas in the North Pole and just enjoy a pleasant moment.”

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Part of the business is also selling ceramic houses, trees and lampposts for miniature Christmas villages, for which avid builders will begin planning months ahead of the holiday season.

Linda Di Tomasso, president of the Village Lamplighters of Quebec, which brings together collectors and Christmas village enthusiasts, says members will often place orders for specific pieces from the store as early as March.

They’ll also visit in the summer months for inspiration as they begin planning their next creation.

“It just gets our creative juices going when we go,” says Di Tomasso, noting the store always has a village on display. “Any time I go in, I’m like a little kid at Christmas. No matter what date it is, and even if it’s 36 degrees outside.”

When Doucet started at the store on a two-week contract 10 years ago, she brought with her a “lifelong love of Christmas” but didn’t expect to one day be heading operations.

Listing all the Disney-themed items in the store, she says if she could have worked anywhere, Walt Disney World probably would have been her first choice “because I like to be in the happiest place on Earth.”

In that sense, Doucet feels a year-round Christmas store is a good second option.

“The beauty of a Christmas store is there are very few people who hate Christmas that visit,” she says. “So you really eliminate a lot of negativity before you hit the front door.”

Boutique Noël Éternel, 60A Notre Dame St. W. in Old Montreal, is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

jfeith@postmedia.com

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