Timeless Toys First Christmas

Hello

Everyone knows that Christmas is the busiest time of year for most retailers, and especially toy retailers. After all Christmas is all about the kids, isn’t it……..?!!

This was Timeless Toys‘ first Christmas and we didn’t really know what to expect in terms of volume of sales or which stock items would be the most popular.

Sales started to pick up once the schools had gone back after the October half-term holiday. The freakishly good weather we experienced before that had pushed thoughts of a wintry Christmas right to the back of everyone’s minds!

November was busier still and I was regularly glad to see 5 o’clock on Saturday afternoon to be able to sit down! (definitely not complaining at that – just so you know!!). We started opening on Sunday’s too in November. We had been open on Sundays through the summer and found them to completely dead. We were very pleased to find that Sunday’s were just as busy as Saturdays are in the run up to Christmas. The Wednesday of the union strikes was our best ever Wednesday. Sensible parents and grandparents used that extra day to get a bit organized and started ticking things off their Christmas ‘to do’ list!

The pile of reserved toys and games reached it’s peak in early December making it very difficult for me to slip past the ‘reserved corner’ and actually get behind the till! Hobnob, in his makeshift stable (okay…..cardboard box), gave the pile a sturdy foundation, supported by a puppet theatre on the left and a train table and train set on the right!

Many Moover Pram‘s and wooden easels were purchased and collected throughout December and we opened everyday of the week, and by ‘we’ I mean me (no rest for the wicked)!! We had been partaking in some late night opening through November and December every Thursday until 8pm. I found this to be entirely pointless out of eight evenings I had customers on only 1 occasion – although I did get a lot of cleaning, organizing and paperwork done!

The week before Christmas was, as was to be expected, the busiest week so far. I was pleasantly surprised by how organised all my customers are and found Christmas Eve to be a busy, but relaxed, day with most people collecting ordered and reserved toys. Only 1 gentleman came in in a blind panic with 2 grandchildren to buy for and not a clue where to start. Those two lucky boys will have loved their Lionheart Castle, I’m sure!

We closed over Christmas for a well deserved 5 days off and had a very lovely Christmas, and I hope you all did too!

Happy New Year from Timeless Toys!