Q1 – For the holidays, we like to dress up our homes, so for least expensive way possible, what would the smart shopper suggest?
Relax in your easy chair, and flip through the publi-sac flyers: Canadian Tire, Zellers, Sears, for big sales on specialty lights, trees, novelty items, etc. And don’t forget the dollar stores.
Q2 – Who would have the most selection of decorations for walls or your table?
Party stores like Giggles, would have table ware like Santa or poinsettia plates, snowflake napkins or for doors. There’s Chanukah plates and napkins and Star of David lanterns, or banners that say Happy Chanukah or Christmas. And if you need one, a Santa suit or elf suit.
Location: 7143 boul. Newman, Lasalle
Tel: 514-363-9472
www.giggles.ca
Other party supply stores: Party Mania, Party World, Vezina Party Center
Q3 – Where are some of the less obvious places to shop for decorations?
1 – Bouclair, an inexpensive stylish home decor chain is one. People are getting away from the traditional red and green and going for glam, here they’re showing white, purple or silver themes this year with feather trees in those colors. For your table – conical sparkly table trees, reindeer made out of glass or glitter and Nutcrackers too.
2 – Art supply houses like So-Facile. They sell decorative metallic mesh (21″ x 10 yds per roll) in 16 beautiful colours – comes in 4″and 6″ as well. This mesh can be used on garlands, as a trim for Christmas trees, decorating around doors and banisters. It is waterproof, so it can be used both indoors and outdoors. They also carry lots of ribbons for Christmas and all occasions. They have standing “picks” which long sticks with shapes on top (Christmas, star, heart) which and be placed in flowers, vases, or tucked into ribbons, etc. And more…
Location: 9320 St-Laurent Blvd. Suite 701
Tel: 514-382-3090
Hours: Mon- Fri 8:30 – 4:30
www.so-facile.com
Q4 – If we want to buy collectible Christmas keepsakes to pass down to our children, is there any place where we can invest in these?
At Noel Eternel in Old Montreal, it’s Christmas all year round here, with ornaments galore (Bradford and Krinkles humorous ones, personalized ones) plus more. Collectors look for the North Pole series, Dept. 56 villages, Charming Tales mice, Snow babies and Fontanini characters. The nutcracker soldiers are marching past the wooden Russian Santas, snow globes and nativity creches.
The hottest thing this year are glass ball ornaments which have been painted from the inside. It’s an ancient Chinese art tradition which was used on perfume bottles for emperors. The glass ball becomes a piece of art as it is painted painstakingly layered in reverse – facial features go on and the background goes last.
Location: 461 rue St. Sulpice, Old Montreal
Tel: 514-285-4944
www.noeleternel.com
Q5 – For those who celebrate Chanukah or would like to decorate their store or business, where should they shop?
Rodal’s Hebrew Bookstore & Gift Shop is the go-to place for everything Jewish. For Chanukah you can decorate with foil dreidels, put gels on your windows, or use hologram lights and LED lights inside or on your windows. There’s Chanukah banners and stickers, plastic dreidels filled with gumballs and if you want to have fun: dreidel and menorah latke shapers – and tons of menorahs of course.
Location: 4689 Van Horne at Victoria
Tel: 514- 733-1876
www.rodals.com
