The window ‘wow factor’

Mountain Brook is known for its holiday splendor — big trees, bright lights and candlelit windows are common sights throughout the villages. But it isn’t just the homes that go all out for the celebrations; local shops join in on the fun, too. From extensive planning to closing for a few days, these shop owners put their heart, soul and inventory into their festive storefront windows. 

Lamb’s Ears

Every year, just before Thanksgiving, Lamb’s Ears covers their windows and closes their doors to customers. 

“We put brown paper not the windows, and at that point, all of Crestline thinks we’re closing,” said co-owner Elizabeth Roberts. But they aren’t closing — they’re transforming. 

A few years back, Roberts and her sister and business partner, Julie Howell, decided they were going to elaborately decorate their store and windows reminiscent of Loveman’s, a former store located in downtown Birmingham that they frequented when they were younger. 

“You dressed up, went to dinner and went down there. And that’s what you did,” said Howell. 

The decorating is mostly up to Howell, and after doing some research, the pair found the perfected animated Santa owned by a couple in Washington. The husband previously worked on special effects for Sylvester Stalone movies and worked on computerizing figures, much like the Santa that Howell and Roberts purchased. 

Now, that Santa plays the fiddle and his elves dance to his music in one of the store windows every Christmas, and they are accompanied by another display of snow-covered birch trees with red cardinals sitting on their branches. 

“It’s just a comforting display,” said Howell, elaborating that many look for the birds during the holidays for spiritual reasons. 

The first year that the sisters created their display, they tried to complete everything while Lamb’s Ears was open, which took nearly three weeks. But now that they close their store for three days, everything is done the weekend that the shop is closed, totaling to over 30 hours of work. 

“It’s fun, but it has a purpose,” said Howell. “You know, Elizabeth and I run a business. We don’t do this as a hobby.”

While most of the development of the display took place their first year, both agreed that they think about what they want far in advance. Because the window serves as entertainment and gives a glimpse into their merchandise, that planning starts the January before.

“The windows are always a challenge, but something we always work hard to make beautiful,” said Howell. And they’re something that the community seems to enjoy. 

Some mornings, Howell and Roberts have come in to find nose prints and hand prints of young Mountain Brook residents dotting their windows. “They’re so excited about it, it’s really cute,” said Roberts. 

Even though the window displays might take a lot of work, the customer feedback and community reactions make it all worth it. “If we didn’t love it, we wouldn’t do it because it is a lot of work,” said Howell. 

A’mano

Lynn Ritchie’s store, A’mano, breathes creativity. It’s a store that’s constantly changing, but always staying true to its description: considered objects for an artful life. After moving to their new location in Lane Parke, the store has evolved once again, and with it, their holiday window display. 

“Our store has become more of a gallery than it has in the past,” said Ritchie. 

Shoppers are greeted with specialty gifts, artwork, handmade jewelry and a unique selection of books. 

She started decorating her storefront years ago to bring people into her store and to match the energy of the holidays. 

“I think [the displays are] just very festive,” she said, mentioning that she wanted her displays to add to the existing beauty of Mountain Brook. 

But with a new store location, Ritchie is faced with new challenges: a lack of a raised display. 

Because the window display is level with the shop, Ritchie wants to incorporate her holiday display with the store itself. 

“It’s made it a little more challenging just because we don’t have actual window boxes that we fill,” she said. “So the actual window displays will be a part of the store.”

Ritchie and her team begin planning for their holiday display a few months in advance, but the new location has required a little more thinking. 

“We always try to incorporate some of our merchandise in the window, but this time, it may just be a really wonderful scene to be enjoyed from the inside or outside,” she said. 

This year, to cope with the difficulty of a missing a designated space for a window display, Ritchie and A’mano’s Director of Marketing, Kirby Whitehead, added more abstract elements that can be seen both inside and outside the store. 

While many families nowadays purchase real or fake trees to decorate for the holidays, historically there was a time when some couldn’t afford the luxury of a tree, Ritchie said. Instead, the families used ladders and decorated them as if they were trees. 

In a display reminiscent of those times, Ritchie and Whitehead worked together to incorporate a little bit of history by using three different sized ladders in their window to represent trees.

During the few nights that she and her team worked on the display before the holidays, they hoped to put “contemporary twist” on their display to be a reflection of A’mano and its evolution. 

“And that’s more of a challenge now that I’ve said it,” Ritchie said. Visitors can see the connection through the white-painted ladders and the oversized, glass-blown festive ornament hanging from the main ladder. 

The extra time put into planning and work doesn’t mean it was any more of a chore for her, though.

“It’s the best part of the job. I should have been a window dresser,” she said. “I hope each year we become more creative and hopefully somebody is downloading our displays on Pinterest.”