Couple gears up for another old-fashioned holiday season at the Christmas House

Published 9:49 am Thursday, November 27, 2014

Santa’s workshop may be at the North Pole, but his gift shop sure seems to be on North Bainbridge.

The Christmas House opened for its annual preview weekend last week, and the store opens for its regular run through the holiday season with a Thanksgiving Day opening.

The vintage store has been a holiday staple on the island for 36 years, said Carolee Pedersen, who operates the Christmas House with her husband Bob, the fixer of clocks and a seasoned wood carver.

The vintage store started with an empty house and three women in the neighborhood, but the others faded away after about four years.

The shop started small, she recalled, but oh, how it has grown.

“It was a half of one room in the house,” Carolee Pedersen said. “Slowly it spread into another room, and then Bob cut a closet out and connected two more rooms.”

The couple are both retired; Bob from his job as a jack-of-all-trades for the parks district, and Carolee, as a teacher in Bainbridge, North Kitsap and Kingston schools.

She laughed when she recalled her decision to step away from the classroom more than a dozen years ago.

“They wanted me to use a computer and I didn’t,” she said.

The vintage shop expanded out of sheer joy, but some necessity, as well, as Carolee’s medical bills began to rise.

“Now it’s the whole house, expect our bedroom,” she said.

Vintage treasures — antique toys, barometers, linens, paintings, old cameras, typewriters, random rubber stamps, plus Christmas merchandise, ornaments and crafts galore — are everywhere.

“It’s floor to ceiling and we live in it,” Carolee laughed. “And our grandchildren are not unhappy staying here.”

“It just took off and we love it. We are the Christmas House and it is us. It’s our life.”

Bob makes by hand many of the ornaments, and Carolee is a renowned crafter and a whiz with needle and thread.

“And Bob makes the best fudge in the world,” she added.

During their busy season, he’s usually making three or four batches a week.

The Christmas House is filled with holiday fare, but the variety can be a bit overwhelming to a first-time visitor.

“On some levels it’s kind of indescribable,” she said. “It looks like a house that’s full and overflowing.”

The Christmas House is located in a 1908-built home at 15060 Washington Ave. NE in Port Madison. The shop had its special preview weekend last week, where $5 admission donations were collected for Bainbridge Island HelpLine House and North Kitsap Fishline.

The couple spends much of the year on the road, looking for items to bring back for their store. They typically take two cross-country trips a year, with Boston in the spring and the Midwest in the fall. (This year also included a shopping visit to France, a birthday present for Bob.)

“The rule is, if we don’t come home with the truck completely full, we haven’t done our job,” she said.

Carolee, 72, and Bob, 80, have enjoyed the warmth of the visitors during the holiday rush each season.

“They ask how long we’re going to do this. The only answer I can give is, we will do it until it’s not fun anymore.”

“It’s always friendly and warm,” she added. “They like what we do and they tell us that. How could that make anyone unhappy?”

The Christmas House is open from 10 a.m. to

4 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It’s also open by chance or by appointment.

For more information, visit the couple’s Christmas House page on Facebook.