by Shortly before noon on October 5, Richard Morrison hung a glass ornament that looked like a head of garlic on a small metal tree. It was one of several trees that had been set up inside a John Derian store in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, where Morrison, a floor manager, and his colleagues had been installing Christmas decorations since September 30.
It was the first time John Derian, 61, started the holiday season in his store since he started his eponymous retail business in New York in 1995.
Morrison, 36, was one of five employees who unpacked and arranged decorations at the store on Oct. 5, a pleasant Thursday. As he hung the ornament, he wiped a streak of glitter from his forehead. “It’s a danger here,” he said of the shine. Claire Cook, 28, a store manager who also did decoration, added: “If you work here, the glitter won’t bother you.”
Derian, owner of three stores on East Second Street, not only started the season earlier than ever this year, but he also dedicated more space than before to Christmas decorations by converting a store normally used as a furniture showroom into a festive wonderland. “People don’t buy furniture as Christmas gifts,” he said, “so I thought it would be fun to do it here.”
Inside there are a dozen trees with hundreds of ornaments, as well as wreaths; antique glass garlands; paper mache treetops; and a giant snowman named Tony that Mr. Derian bought from an antiques dealer in Rhode Island. He paid about $1,200 for the snowman, he said, adding that if a customer wanted to buy it, he would charge about $2,400.
But on Oct. 5, the day before the Christmas store opened to the public, it was still in disarray. Around 1 pm that afternoon, a young woman wearing a blush-colored tracksuit walked in while Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” was playing.
“We’re not actually open,” Mr. Morrison told him, “but feel free to look around. Just be careful!”
A group of angel ornaments in pastel blues and pinks hung from copper meat hooks near the register. Cardboard boxes scattered around the store contained even more decorations: pickles, mermaids, artichokes, cans of caviar, corgis, oysters, greens and toadstools were just some of the designs. Most were made of glass in Poland or Germany. Their prices vary: a small glass peacock ornament costs $32; a large crystal dragon costs $352.
When the young woman left the store, her LL Bean tote bag, embroidered with the word “kill,” barely missed a peacock.
Derian said this year he had about 50,000 ornaments for sale online and in his stores. Employees try to keep three of each style on display. As ornaments sell (or break) they are replaced. Some extras are stored in a patio behind the Christmas store for easy access. Others are kept on the same block, in a space used for shipping and storage, and in a studio on Chrystie Street where Derian does decoupage, a type of cut-and-paste art.
Derian estimated that a couple of ornaments were broken each day in his stores, but there is no “break it and buy it” rule. “When someone breaks an ornament, we say that an angel gets its wings from it,” he added, referring to a line from the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Several were destroyed while the tent was being set up on October 5. Their mangled remains were thrown into a box that employees called the “ornament graveyard.”
“Every now and then you hear a crash and you hope for the best,” said Patrick Dugan, 36, a sales associate who helps decorate the store.
Near the back of the store, a towering faux fir tree dotted with faux snow was adorned with mushroom ornaments of various shapes in colors such as red, green, purple, pink and aquamarine. Many employees said the mushroom tree, versions of which have been installed in recent years, has become the most popular Christmas display.
Piotr Morawski, whose family business, Morawski Ornaments in Lodz, Poland, has been selling items to Derian for about a decade, called him “the mushroom guy.”
Morawski, 29, added: “He loves them.”
Derian said his love for mushrooms grew after he began foraging for mushrooms in his free time, adding that he typically used what he found for decoration, not cooking. “Here you can forage for your own mushrooms,” he said of the store, “without ticks.”
He started selling ornaments 15 years ago because of his love of Christmas, he said, “and it just kept growing and growing.”
Actress Amy Sedaris, a longtime customer and now friend of Mr. Derian, compared the interior of the Christmas store to “the bottom of the ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ bottle.” Anna Wintour, Vogue editor and another longtime customer, said in an email, “There’s always something surprising, whimsical or fun.”
Certain people have a tradition of visiting Derian’s stores this time of year, he said, and some bring their children. He added that collaborations with Target, for which she recently designed a line of Thanksgiving décor, had brought her greater exposure. “It became something I didn’t expect it to become,” she said.
A newer element of Mr. Derian’s Christmas setup is the rope post he used on East Second Street to limit the number of customers who can shop at one time. He began using it in 2020, when pandemic-related restrictions imposed strict capacity limits on stores. But he continued using the stanchion, he said, because “if there are too many people inside, it’s not fun for anyone.”
Sometimes, especially on weekends in December, a queue forms outside. At first, Derian said, “I would feel bad about the line.” But then he began to notice the lines that can form nearby on Lafayette Street, outside Levain Bakery and the Kith clothing store. “I went there and there were lines and people were fine,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood of lines.”
Derian, who grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, and whose father managed a local supermarket, does not use point-of-sale software in his stores. Prices are written on paper labels and customers receive handwritten receipts. “I’m a creative person who runs a company, not really a business person,” she said, adding that she has been holding online meetings with a business advisor since 2022.
He said about a quarter of his stores’ sales were holiday-related. As in previous years, he opens some stores, including the Christmas store, for the season on Sundays, when they are normally closed. Derian also hired five seasonal workers this year. He employs about 40 people full time and also has stores in the West Village and in Provincetown, Mass.
He thought starting the season earlier and converting the furniture showroom into a holiday store would help increase sales, he said, and offer a better shopping experience, in part because he is using a larger space. “It’s easier to get in and out,” Derian said.
On October 5, shortly after 2 p.m., a cloud of smoke appeared outside the store’s entrance as employees prepared their displays. Smoke billowed from a bundle of sage leaves lit by Thomas Little, whose company, Urbangreen, has done landscaping and planting work at Derian’s stores for the past decade.
Little, 59, said he began each project for Derian with a wise ritual.
“When you walk into John’s,” he said, “it’s a sacred thing.”
