‘It’s a happy place’: Christmas Tree Shops customers reminisce as all locations set to close this weekend

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - This weekend marks the end of an era in shopping. Christmas Tree Shops is closing all locations on Saturday, including the one in Holyoke.

“My friend was here, and she said, ‘This is it.’ So I was like ‘I have to come,’” said Nancy Lancto of Westfield.

It is the end of an era for Christmas Tree Shops. For more than 50 years since its founding on Cape Cod, the long-running discount store chain, now bankrupt, is closing locations across the country for good on Saturday.

Western Mass News spoke with shoppers who said they had been going in and out of Christmas Tree Shops’ stores for decades.

“I would get generally small things that I wouldn’t normally get anywhere else, things for the outdoors and the patio, things for the garden, that kind of thing,” expressed Francine Lamountain of West Springfield.

“It’s a happy place,” added Kevin O’Donnell of Queens, New York. “It’s got a lot of decorations. One of the things we look for is house decorations for different holidays, so (we like) when they always have something for every season.”

On Friday morning, dozens of shoppers spent a little bit of time looking around the store for one final time. Some said they have good memories they will cherish.

“It’s so close to where I live,” noted Lamountain. “Yes, absolutely convenient.”

“My sister-in-law would come down, and we would always go to this shop first, and we would spend hours into it,” said Lancto.

With one day left to stop, here is what you need to know, prices have been slashed on the remaining merchandise for up to 90 percent off for Christmas, Halloween and Easter-related items.

Cards are also only 10 cents each, which is one of the purchases New York City’s Kevin O’Donnell made on Friday.

He said the retail chain will certainly be missed.

“I’ve shopped at a lot of their stores in Cape Cod, and I think going to Cape Cod is going to feel different without the stores there because I think that was a big part of Cape Cod as well,” explained O’Donnell.

This location will open its doors one last time Saturday morning at 9 a.m. to give shoppers one last chance to get what they need to say farewell.

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