What holiday decorations should you be stocking?

With the holiday seasons just around the corner, it’s time to stock up on the decorations consumers want and the must-have items every IGC should offer for the holidays. Garden Center magazine spoke with All Seasons Garden Center, Moore & Moore Garden Center and Herbein’s Garden Center regarding what holiday trends they’ve noticed over the past few years.

What themes or motifs are you stocking, and what has been popular?

All Seasons Garden Center, North Dakota

Jan Heitmann, buyer and designer: Gnomes continue to grow in popularity. We are in the upper Midwest, so gnomes kind of go with our lifestyle up here. We’re always stocking classic red with a nice white ice secondary theme. We’re more cabin than we are lodge, and people want to leave their decorations up until March, so our customers respond to neutrals, birch and things like that.

Moore & Moore Garden Center, Tennessee

Robyn Brown, general manager: Most of what we sell would be considered traditional. The last couple of years we’ve done well with mid-century modern such as the Shiny Brite collection. Last year we had traditional, flocked, mid-century modern and what we consider a natural tree.

Herbein’s Garden Center, Pennsylvania

Tom Bull, owner: We do a lot of custom decorations, and people have been sticking with classic stuff. Some modern things are also filtered in, but we have a huge repeat customer base that seems to stick with the same items.

How has your inventory changed over the past few years?

All Seasons Garden Center

JH: We continue to stock classic and timeless items. We’re always rotating around classic red, sparkle, textures and smells of the holiday. We sell a lot of carved Christmas trees, pinecones and other carved things. We stock a lot of décor that goes with winter rather than just Christmas as well. Our winters are so long, so people like icicles, snowflakes and white decorations. … We grow our own poinsettias. Every inch of the greenhouse is full of poinsettias, which is kind of unheard of up here.

Moore & Moore Garden Center

RB: We are doing less whimsical in Santas and children’s items. We have stepped up our stems and table décor. This includes non-Christmas items such as candle holders and basic home décor dressed for Christmas. We are also buying less ornaments. We carry specialty ornaments but very few basic ornaments.

Herbein’s Garden Center

TB: Our inventory has increased over the past few years. We are stocking a lot more artificial trees and artificial décor.

What colors have been popular over the past few years?

All Seasons Garden Center

JH: Sometimes our customers are into shades of melon, pink, navy and copper, but they seem to still respond to the classic red, white and neutrals.

Moore & Moore Garden Center

RB: We have seen a trend toward gold and blue. Red is still the best-selling color, and we have been doing well with copper and sage.

Herbein’s Garden Center

TB: Silver and gold seem to be popular. We sell ribbons, Christmas balls and pinecones in those colors. We use a lot of the pinecones in our custom décor.

How does your IGC inspire customers with displays?

All Seasons Garden Center

JH: We have about a dozen decorated trees throughout the store, tying our main gift area with the garden store. It turns into a little bit of a runway with our Christmas trees, wreaths, garlands, pottery area and outdoor decorations. We try to turn the garden store into a little path of things that tie the holiday décor and gardening together. … We change the lighting during the holidays. The fluorescent lights come down, and the Christmas lights go up. People really respond to light with their days being so short, and not just on trees but also on centerpieces and wreaths.

Moore & Moore Garden Center

RB: We set up our trees as they would be in our customers’ homes. We have the trees and coordinating home decor adjacent to each other to give them ideas for table and mantle decor. We trim our entry doors, above our display hutches and have it hanging from the ceiling. We are dripping with Christmas. In our greenhouse we always do a large display set for Santa with all the fixins.

Herbein’s Garden Center

TB: We set up a lot of displays with artificial trees, and we decorate the trees. We pre-make our wreaths with decorations so people can come and grab them.

Have you seen a shift toward décor that lasts through multiple seasons or holidays?

All Seasons Garden Center

JH: People are different. Some people come into the store and have bought a new house, so they want to start fresh with holiday decorations. Some of our customers just want to come and buy stems. We do a lot of berries and a variety of faux stems. I source a lot of different ribbons for indoor and outdoor, so that’s nice to add texture to a tree or wreath when decorating. We do a lot of custom centerpieces, so a lot of our customers want us to make different permanent arrangements for the home rather than just the tree. Some of our customers have been coming here since we’ve opened to get that one special ornament every year. There was a young man in here, and he came without his mom because his folks have retired. He said, ‘I know I’m 31, but I’m still coming for my ornament.’ It was so cute.

Moore & Moore Garden Center

RB: We have always included items that can be used in multiple seasons. I’d say a majority of our tabletop decorations are things you can use again and again. Multiple season items are a must.

What types of decor items are selling well?

All Seasons Garden Center

JH: We sell ornaments, garland, wreaths and candles. We sell lighted screens and tabletop Santas, snowmen and angels. We sell a variety of containers that are made of tin and metal. These containers can be used trans-seasonally. When I went to AmericasMart this year, lighted things were at the top of my list: lighted acrylic trees, lighted acrylic snowman, lighted plaques, lighted screens, lighted anything.

Moore & Moore Garden Center

RB: I would say stems are one of our biggest sellers. We also do extremely well with water lanterns and scented candles. Seeded bird decor sells out yearly, as well as anything that lights up. Anything!

Herbein’s Garden Center

TB: Lawn ornaments and artificial deer have been popular. We make custom wreaths, mantlepieces and hundreds of bows. Artificial trees are becoming more popular.

GC editor Kate Spirgen contributed to this article.