Two Days Until Christmas!!

We have had a wonderful season at Carolina Creations!

Yesterday we were honored with visits from both Santa and Bernie the Bear, which really put everyone in the Christmas spirit.

Each year we get visits from some unforgetable characters.

Like the 3-4 men from Oriental that zoom in on one of our late nights, kid each other and us, purchase the perfect gift, then go off to Belks. They've been coming for the last 6 years!

Then there is the 80 year old gentleman that has been shopping with us since our Middle Street days (1989-1996). He always looks for a unique container for his gifts then proceeds to fill it up with carefully selected items for his wife. It's always fun to see what he has chosen. He says "Carolina Creations is the only place I shop!"

The child that we can't even see reaching over his head to put his gift for his Mom on the counter, then the hand coming up again with the $5 to pay for it.

We have wives that tell us how happy they are that we're open our regular hours on Christmas Eve. "It used to be the only place open on Christmas Eve was Eckerds Drug Store - so that's where my gifts all came from!"

Every year we hear - I should have started my shopping here!

But our all time favorite, which we've heard several times today - Our kids just arrived and they want to come here first - even before they come to the house!!

There are quite a few people that like to shop on Christmas Eve - they say it adds a bit of excitement to it. Like clockwork we're super busy all day until 4 pm, then the streets empty out and we have just a hand full of customers between then and our 6 pm closing. I love that 2 hours! I look around and think about the season, all the happy faces, the carefully chosen gifts, the artists whose work we've sold and I wonder about what the next year will bring.

This week I've already been calling artists and requesting work for Valentines day. Our annual Valentine benefit is in just 3 weeks!!

We love our gallery, our gallery helpers, our cutomers and our artists, and Downtown New Bern, we're so grateful we found this beautiful town 23 years ago.