Greetings! Wendy, here, and I'm going to do my best to introduce you to my sister, Whitney, and myself and tell you a little about how the Christmas Pickle came to be. So, as you've probably already seen, we have launched The Christmas Pickle because we LOVE CHRISTMAS and everything the season represents. It makes us happy, and in these especially challenging times, finding JOY in every day is not always easy. This was our way of creating our own JOY and sharing it with others. We grew up in an extremely close-knit family, and now we're blessed to be raising our kids together and passing on many favorite traditions from our childhood. The picture at the top of this page is us, our kids, and our mom at our small-town Christmas parade. A big time was had by all!
Several years ago, my husband and I had a seasonal pop-up Christmas store, and Whitney worked with us to help make it a reality. The three of us really had fun with it, but at the time, we lived in different areas. Then, we had kids and career changes, and life happened. We never reopened for another season, but we never completely let go of it either. Every time Whitney and I talked about it we said, "someday". We are not retail moguls. By trade, we work in education and non-profit management, and we're proud of the careers we have built. But, there's just something magical about running a Christmas store and helping people create beautiful memories. Simply put, it brings us JOY.
With everything going on this year, we needed a way to make people smile and remember the JOY of the Christmas season all year round. Obviously, conditions were not ideal for opening a brick-and-mortar storefront, but we knew we could use social media and the web to still make a personal connection and celebrate in new ways. Thanks to our new friend, Aaron, we had someone with the technical knowledge to help us make it happen. I think that had been one of the biggest missing pieces when we had previously discussed how to re-open the Christmas Pickle.
So, that's how the mission began. Now that we live closer together, we can collaborate in new ways, so we were off to the races. My husband owns his own business, and Whitney's husband is a firefighter. They have their own responsibilities, but they've both been instrumental in helping us pull all of this together...and they enjoy it more than they would ever admit...at least that's what we tell ourselves!! We're blessed they always find a way to help make our dreams a reality. Our parents and our brother and his family live close by, and they've gotten in on the action, too...it truly takes a village.
Our little corner of the cyber world is designed to be a place where everyone is welcomed to stop and stay for awhile to find inspiration and encouragement for their holiday preparations. We hope you are reminded of the power of giving from the heart, and all it can accomplish. Please enjoy your visit and connecting with this community of Christmas enthusiasts. To stay up-to-date on what is coming next and our other antics, please join our Facebook group, Christmas Pickle VIPs and follow us on all our social media platforms.
In the Spirit of Christmas,
Wendy & Whitney