Hallmark is Santa's Workshop in Aberdeen

You are walking into Santa's Workshop when you step into Anne Marie's Hallmark store in Aberdeen's Beards Hill Plaza.

The store is colorfully decorated in Christmas greens and reds, smells of homemade chocolate candy and peppermint permeate the air and the soft sounds of Christmas music play in the background.  

Owner Carl Sallese, who also owns both the Perry Hall and Middle River stores, likes to keep it simple when decorating the store for the holidays.  

“We try to let the merchandise tell the story and then we just enhance it with lots of reds and some other things such as lights,” Sallese said.  

The store is covered head-to-toe with Christmas gift ideas, cards and stocking stuffers for all ages.  

Sallese recommends Hallmark's most popular item, the Hallmark Keepsake Ornament, for Christmas shoppers.  

“There’s a great collection of over 200 ornaments here. There is something for everyone, such as baby’s first Christmas, first anniversary, and things for grandparents and parents,” Sallese said.  

The store also features Barbie, Star Wars, Disney, and other popular ornaments.  

To take advantage of this month’s promotions, Sallese recommends customers to sign up for monthly newsletters on Anne Marie’s Hallmark website.  

“We promote a lot of our Christmas specials through the newsletter that we send out to our customers, which went out the early part of November,” he said.  

But among the Christmas decorations and Hallmark ornaments, Sallese also likes to focus on local products from the community’s artists.  

“Aberdeen is a great community for our kind of store. Part of what we try to do is really identify and support the things that are important to our local community and we try to provide those things in our store," he said.

The store carries a number of pieces signed by local artists such as cracked shells and hand painted wine glasses with football and local nautical designs. Local hand-packed candy is also available. 

“Get your gifts and cards quick,” Sallese recommends. “The last 10 days of the season are very hectic for us and we always find that there’s someone banging on the door to get that last Christmas card as we are locking the doors Dec. 24.”   

Is your business hosting deals and specials around the holidays? Let your neighbors know on our running list here.