We’ll have a fresh look this holiday season as we introduce a variety of new store decorations, from candles and gift-wrapped packages to ornamental stars and toy soldiers standing 8 feet or more.
They’ll be unveiled publicly in early November, but we thought you might enjoy a sneak peek.
Santa needs a helper.
Royer’s has developed a new arrangement for the holiday season, but we need help naming it.
This is where you come in, by entering our name-the-Christmas-arrangement contest. A lucky winner will receive one of the arrangements that he or she has named.
The arrangement, in a red mason jar, will include red carnations, white alstroemeria, hypericum, tips of Douglas fir and white pine, pinecones, and shiny red stick-ins.
To enter the contest, visit royers.com/contest.
The deadline to enter is Aug. 15; limit one entry daily per email address.
Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, is a regular contributor to Fox 43 Morning News. For his final visit of 2014 to the station’s York studio, he brought with him poinsettias, a carnation snowman and other symbols of the holiday season.
You can view the entire segment by clicking here.
Meanwhile, here are some behind-the-scenes photos from before, during and after the appearance.
Sure, you picture him riding in a sleigh pulled by reindeer.
But Santa is spending part of this holiday season behind the wheel of our classic 1969 Ford Econoline delivery van.
The van is parked at our Columbia location, where store manager Patti Barclay decorated it for the yuletide. Just in case the headlights need an assist in the fog, there’s Rudolph’s very shiny nose as a backup.
We typically think of the North Pole when it comes to Christmas, but the most popular holiday plant originates with our neighbor to the south.
Poinsettias are native to Mexico and were introduced to the United States in 1825 by Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
In fact, Poinsett’s death in 1851 is commemorated every Dec. 12 as National Poinsettia Day.
Some other facts:
Source: www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/poinsettia
HOW TO CARE FOR POINSETTIAS:
Before his latest appearance on Fox 43, Barry Spengler stopped at a drugstore for a bottle of hairspray.
It wasn’t an act of vanity. Rather, Barry brought it to the TV studio as a prop for his visit with Fox 43’s Amanda McCall.
She introduced Barry, Royer’s vice president of operations, by noting: “The food certainly is important, but don’t forget the Thanksgiving centerpiece.”
Barry brought two centerpieces, including a small one made in a wicker basket that looked like a turkey and a larger one to show how simple it is to convert from Thanksgiving to Christmas use.
If you’re visiting for Thanksgiving, Barry recommended loose flowers as a hostess gift.
“This always works,” he said. “It works like a champ.”
If you’re the recipient of loose flowers, Barry suggested creating a tape grid — essentially an X across the opening of your vase — to support the flowers.
As for the hairspray, it’s Barry’s not-so-secret tip for making Christmas wreaths last longer. It acts like glue to hold the wreath together and gives it a nice sheen.
“It will glue it together,” he said. “It will make (the wreath) last so much nicer. It won’t get that brown hue as fast. It will hold up so much nicer against the wind and the sun and all that.”
You can watch the full segment here:
There’s no need to stop at Black Friday. What are you doing the rest of the weekend?
Join us for our annual holiday open house. All of our stores will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
We’ll be offering:
• 30 percent off Christmas silk arrangements
• Door prizes
• Free balloons for children both days
• Refreshments on Sunday
And through Dec. 5, all of our stores are collecting holiday cards and coloring pages for the American Red Cross’ “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program. For details, click here.
Of course, we’ll have lots of beautiful flowers, plants and giftware available, too, as we usher in the holiday season.
We hope to see you there.
Royer’s Flowers & Gifts and the American Red Cross are teaming up this year to deliver “Holiday Mail for Heroes.”
From Nov. 17 through Dec. 5, Royer’s stores will collect holiday cards and coloring pages that will be delivered to patients at the Lebanon VA Medical Center. Red Cross volunteers will organize the cards and tie them with ribbons for hand delivery to the veterans.
Cards may be dropped off during normal business hours.
The Red Cross, which created the national “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program, offers these guidelines for preparing cards:
• Include messages of support and thanks;
• Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member” as cards addressed to specific individuals can not be delivered through this program;
• Don’t include letters or inserts such as photos;
• Don’t include email or home addresses on the cards: the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships;
• Sign your name to them;
• Refrain from choosing cards with glitter as it can aggravate health issues of ill and injured warriors.
Coloring pages are available at all Royer’s stores or can be downloaded here, courtesy of Coloring-Page.net: