CANAJOHARIE — Fred Lee always loved Christmas and spent most of his adult life wanting to open a store dedicated to the holiday.
He had started one in the 1980s with his sister Ruth Snyder in the family farmhouse on Montgomery Street Extension in Canajoharie. However, Snyder eventually wanted to go into nursing and the business dissolved.
In 2016, still desiring to run a Christmas shop, Lee, who also founded Lee Publications in 1965, heard about the store space available at 24 Church St. that a bank was having a hard time selling and decided to check it out. The very same day he came to an agreement with the bank to buy the space. By October 2017, Lee's Shops at Wagner Square was open.
Now, six years on, this year will be the first Christmas without Lee. The man with a heart full of Christmas cheer died on Nov. 5 at 88 years old.
It’s a bit sad for his daughter Janet Stanley, who fondly remembers her father visiting the store.
“There were certain sounds you got used to in here,” she said. “You would hear the doors open and the pace he would come in, you almost did not even have to look and you would know that Dad was here.”
Stanley operates the store part time with the help of her son Travis Button and niece Darcie Maybie. She also oversees Lee Publications in Nelliston.
Originally, Stanley wanted to go into interior design, but her father suggested she head to college to study business first. Operating the store is now a way of fulfilling that dream, she said.
The 8,500-square-foot store heavily focuses on Christmas, with little trees decorated throughout, ornaments galore and many more festive items ready to be purchased.
Stanley does the merchandise purchasing for the store, going to a couple trade shows a year, including ones in Atlanta and New York City.
“I look for general gifts, but then I focus on Christmas basically because the Christmas part of the store is always here,” she said. “We never [do] not have Christmas items, so I’m always looking for Christmas.”
But, the store offers more than just Christmas items.
One room with toys and books abound is dedicated to small children and another to various food items. One area has personal care items, like soaps, for sale and there is a whole room for candles. Another area of the store is perfect for those who love cards and anyone into home decor can pick up a few things, too.
The store also carries some collectable items like Charlie Bears. It even has a $4,400 life-size Charlie Bear — one of Stanley’s favorite items in the store.
“I will cry the day I sell him,” she said, “if I ever sell him.”
She said people all over the world go to them for the bears and other items. Stanley said her father loved to read through the guest book and see who had come to visit the store.
“If he were here when somebody would be at the cash register, he would beat me to asking ‘How did you hear about us?’ because he would always want to know,” she said.
Stanley said the business has done really well over the years.
“We have increased our sales every year since we’ve been open, even the COVID years, which I thought was a really good testament to the marketing I’ve been able to do,” she said.
That includes dressing as the Easter bunny to deliver items to people.
“We were on the road for three weeks,” she said.
They delivered from Saratoga County to as far as Utica.
Like many places, the business struggles to get employees, particularly because they need them seasonally.
“It’s hard to find people to work for eight weeks,” she said.
Other challenges have been the building that houses the store, which can have issues at times given its age, as well as the rising cost of merchandise and how it affects retail prices.
But, Stanley is pleased people keep coming back. Now, she likes to remind them that they’re a year-round store with a lot to offer.
“Once you come here, you realize there’s so much here,” she said.