Anyone else love The Xmas Tree shops?

Great store. Except at Christmas, it has nothing to do with Christmas! They just opened one up here last Fall.

I always cruise the 90% off shelves, and always come away with something. A few weeks back, I found several sizes of their Nantucket baskets. They had broken handles (the handles are a curved piece of wood that is bolted onto the basket proper--in other words, easily removable). I got them as cheaply as .33 each. I removed the handles, and they look quite nice on my counter; I plan to use them for Rev War reenacting--to place veggies in wile cooking. Last week, I found an opened, but intact, box of monogrammed notecards, which just happened to have my initial--.10 for a box of 20. As I had a few thank-you notes to write, it was a nice find. I also found 2 plastic, 12" "window-boxes" (their term) planters. The back rim was a bit damaged, but you can't tell when on my kitchen counter (I started seedlings in them): .10 each. Today's find: 4 silky-soft fleece throws--nothing wrong with them, except for the paper band label was torn. My cats LOVE these. Cost: $1.00 for the silky, nicer ones; the plain fleece one:.37! (MomCat is keeping the silky, robin's egg blue one for herself!).

And a chill ran up my spine today when I walked past the basket display: I saw another broken-handled Nantucket basket! Come to Mama, baby! I plan to check again tomorrow to see if it's been moved to the 90% bin!

It's always nice to get a bargain, but I especially love doing do when I can salvage some poor, broken item, and make it "new" again.

My Mom buys all kinds of stuff there! There isn't one near me, but when I visit her, we go. Great store!

May I ask what part of the country this store is mainly located? I'd like to go!

I almost went into one today. I should have. I didn't realize they were having such good sales.

I do a lot of my Secret Santa shopping there. I also make my nieces up "goody bags" every Christmas lots of odds and ends. I buy most of the things there. I already have a lot put aside for next year.

Here is their website with the locations:

http://www.christmastreeshops.com/

I used to shop there, until I started realizing that nearly everything they sold had a "made in China" tag on it, which turned me off. Especially since the pet food problems - I just don't want to be buying so much from that country any more. I've become much more label conscious.

In addition, I found that you really get what you pay for - for example, I used to buy candles there until I learned that they were the types with lead in the wicks, and had one spark up and almost cause a fire on me.

Then add in the fact that I hate crowds, and parking there was always a hassle and the stores were too crowded...well, yeah, I stopped shopping there completely.