Seasonal Brookfield Business Focuses On Memories

BROOKFIELD, WI — Callisters Christmas has been a family-owned business for 30 years.

"We opened this business because we love Christmas," Michele Zelenak, co-owner, said.

People wondered how Callisters would compete with stores such as Hallmark, she added.

The store started out with wooden ornaments and now carries more than 5,000 styles of ornaments.

"The industry has grown so much," she said.

The seasonal store has been a familiar fixture in malls over past holiday seasons.

"We've been in Brookfield Square, Fox River, Mayfair and Southridge Mall. We even have a store at Mall of America" in Minnesota, Zelenak said.

The business has always wanted to do a pop-up outside of the mall as an experiment.

A pop-up store opportunity presented itself at the Brookfield Fashion Center, 16900 W. Bluemound Road.

The store also has collectibles, gifts, florals and home decor for the holidays. This year, gnomes and light-up pictures are hot, according to co-owner Melanie Jensen.

There are Christmas village pieces available.

Jensen said some customers put up a village on their own. Often it is because of tradition.

"A lot of times it is because mom collected it," she said.

A Personal Touch

Callisters Christmas offers free hand-lettered personalization on every ornament.

"It's a big part of who we are," Zelenak said.

Zelenak explained how many people use ornaments as a way of marking what happened during the year. There are ornaments for getting a driver's license, the first day of school, going on a special trip and more.

"When they put the tree up it is all about those memories and traditions," she said.

Customers often ask the store to write names and dates on the ornaments and the event.

The actual process of personalizing an ornament is not an easy one.

Tammy Crouch has been an employee for 30 years. She said personalization is hard to do but meaningful.

"You can have really good handwriting on paper to translate that on ornaments, which are slippery. It is much more difficult than you would think," Crouch said.

A person who does this has to worry about spacing and the texture of the ornament and different spellings of names.

"Before, kids would be so disappointed to not get a license plate or something with their name on it. We can personalize it," she said.

Crouch said they are not perfect and mistakes can happen. But they have special techniques to fix them.

What is meaningful to both Crouch and Zelenak is seeing ornaments personalized for engagements, births and memorials.

The store has a good sized collection of memorial ornaments to remember someone who died.

"When it is that first Christmas in heaven for a family, they can come in and get a memorial ornament," she said.

People don't have to just select the memorial ornaments but could use any item that represented a person's life.

"One of our gals who works for us, her mom used to always make deviled eggs. She did a deviled egg ornament for everyone in her family," Crouch said.

Another customer lost her husband, who was a teacher. Crouch said the store personalized a pencil ornament to remember him.