Shortly before noon on October 5, Richard Morrison hung a glass ornament that resembled a head of garlic on a small metal tree. It was one of several trees installed inside a John Derian store in Manhattan’s East Village, where Mr. Morrison, a floor manager, and his colleagues had been putting up a Christmas decoration since on September 30.
It was the first time John Derian, 61, started the Christmas season at his store since he launched his eponymous retail business in New York in 1995.
Mr. Morrison, 36, was one of five employees unpacking and arranging the store’s decorations on October 5, a balmy Thursday. As he hung the ornament, he wiped a trail of glitter from his forehead. “It’s a danger here,” he said of the glitter. Claire Cook, 28, a store manager who was also decorating, added: “If you work here you can’t be bothered by the glitter. »
Mr. Derian, who owns three stores on East Second Street, not only started the season earlier than ever this year, but he also devoted more space than before to holiday decorating by transforming a store normally used as a furniture showroom into a festive wonderland. “People don’t buy furniture as Christmas gifts,” he said, “so I thought it might be fun to do it here.”
Inside are a dozen trees bearing hundreds of ornaments, as well as wreaths; vintage glass garlands; paper mache tree toppers; and a giant snowman named Tony that Mr. Derian bought from an antique store in Rhode Island. He paid about $1,200 for the snowman, he said, adding that if a customer wanted to buy it, he would charge about $2,400.
But on October 5, the day before the holiday store opened to the public, he was still in disarray. Around 1 p.m. that afternoon, a young woman dressed in a blush-colored athleisure ensemble walked in while Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” played.
“Actually, we’re not open,” Mr. Morrison told him, “but feel free to look around.” Be careful!”
A group of angel ornaments in pastel shades of blue and pink hung from copper meat hooks near the register. Cardboard boxes scattered around the store contained even more ornaments: pickles, mermaids, artichokes, cans of caviar, corgis, oysters, vegetables and toadstools were just a few of the designs. Most were made of glass in Poland or Germany. Their prices vary: a small glass peacock costs $32; a large glass dragon costs $352.
As the young woman left the store, her LL Bean tote bag, embroidered with the word “slay”, narrowly missed a peacock.
Mr. Derian said he had about 50,000 ornaments for sale online and in his stores this year. Employees try to display three examples of each style. As ornaments are sold – or broken – they are replaced. Some extras are stored in a yard behind the vacation store for easy access. Others are kept around the corner, in a space used for shipping and storage, and in a studio on Chrystie Street where Mr. Derian does decoupage, a kind of copy-and-paste art.
Mr. Derian estimates that a few ornaments were broken every day in his stores, but there is no “you break it, you buy it” rule. “When someone breaks an ornament, they say an angel takes its wings,” he added, referring to a line from the film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Several of them were destroyed during the installation of the store on October 5. Their broken remains were thrown into a box that employees called the “ornament graveyard.”
“Every once in a while you hear a crash and you hope for the best,” said Patrick Dugan, 36, a salesman who helped decorate the store.
Near the back of the store, a towering artificial spruce tree speckled with fake snow was adorned with mushroom ornaments of various shapes in colors like red, green, purple, pink and aquamarine. Many employees said the mushroom tree, versions of which have been installed in recent years, has become the most popular holiday display.
Piotr Morawski, whose family business, Morawski Ornaments in Lodz, Poland, has sold items to Mr. Derian for about a decade, nicknamed him “the mushroom guy.”
Mr Morawski, 29, added: “He loves them. »
Mr Derian said his fondness for mushrooms developed after he started foraging for them in his spare time, adding that he usually used what he found for decorating, not cooking. “You can pick your own mushrooms here,” he said of the store, “with no ticks.”
He started selling decorations 15 years ago because of his love of Christmas, he said, “and it just grew and grew.”
Actress Amy Sedaris, a longtime customer and now friend of Mr. Derian, compared the interior of the Christmas store to “the bottom of the ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ bottle.” Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue and another longtime customer, said in an email: “There’s always something surprising, whimsical or fun. »
Some people have made it a tradition to visit Mr. Derian’s stores this time of year, he said, and some bring their children. He added that collaborations with Target, for which he recently designed a line of Thanksgiving decor, have brought him more exposure. “It turned into something I didn’t expect,” he said.
A more recent element of Mr. Derian’s vacation setup is the rope pole he used on East Second Street to limit the number of customers who can shop at one time. He started using it in 2020, when pandemic restrictions imposed strict capacity limits on stores. But he continued to use the pole, he said, because “if there are too many people in there, it’s not fun for anyone.”
Sometimes, especially on weekends in December, a queue forms outside. At first, Mr. Derian said, “I would feel bad about that line. » But then he started to notice the lines that can form nearby, on Lafayette Street, in front of the Levain bakery and the Kith clothing store. “I was going there and there are lines and people are fine,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood of lines.”
Mr. Derian, who grew up in Watertown, Mass., and whose father ran a local supermarket, does not use point-of-sale software in his stores. Prices are written on paper labels and customers receive handwritten receipts. “I’m a creative person running a business, not really a businessman,” he said, adding that he has been having online meetings with a business coach since 2022.
He said about a quarter of his stores’ sales are holiday-related. As in past years, it is opening certain stores, including the holiday boutique, for the season on Sundays, when they are normally closed. Mr. Derian also hired five seasonal workers this year. It employs about 40 people full time and also has stores in the West Village and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
He thought starting the season earlier and turning the furniture showroom into a holiday store would help increase sales, he said, and provide a better shopping experience, in part because it uses a larger space. “It’s easier to get in and out,” Mr. Derian said.
On October 5, shortly after 2 p.m., a cloud of smoke appeared in front of the store’s entrance as employees were preparing the displays. Smoke billowed from a clump of sage leaves lit by Thomas Little, whose company, Urbangreen, had been doing landscaping and planting work at Mr. Derian’s stores for the past decade.
Mr. Little, 59, said he begins each project for Mr. Derian with a sage ritual.
“When you walk into John’s,” he said, “it’s a sacred thing. »
