Saline home décor retailer Cobblestone Rose held its annual open house celebration earlier this month to usher in the holiday shopping season. The store closed for a whole week to prepare for the weekend-long event.

“It’s when people get to see the first designs of the year that we do and see it all decked out for the holidays for the first time,” store owner Karen Hodgson said. “It’s fresh, and everybody comes back because everyone knows there will be more.” 

Aside from a big sale held on the day after Christmas, that was about it for 18-year-old retailer's holiday shopping season preparations.

Hodgson opened the store in 1991 and sells everything from bedding, rugs, lighting and furniture to women’s and children’s clothing and jackets. It brings in seasonal inventory such as garden items during spring and fall wreath, centerpieces and porch decorations.

During the Christmas season, Hodgson designs custom wreaths, table centerpieces and staircase banister wraps and mantle centerpieces. The store also sells Christmas tree decorations and other gifts.

“We just do what we do, try to take what we can find and put a new spin on it and try to make it original to us,” Hodgson said. “That’s what people come to us for is to find things they can’t find anywhere else.”

Hodgson says she believes this year’s holiday shopping season will be better than last year’s, when the design component of the business dipped.

“People are doing things with their homes again, which helps,” she said. “I think that’s where people kind of pulled in last year… now some people are ready to do something with their homes again, which is nice.”

Sales have been steady in recent months, Hodgson said.

“It was a tough year,” she said. “The first part of the year was hard for everybody.”

Contact Sven Gustafson at sventg123@gmail.com, or follow him at twitter.com/sveng.