It is plenty of summer, the holiday has started and the mercury regularly crawls towards 30 degrees. But anyone who hobbles the Intratuin in Halsteren would almost think that it is time for the winter coat again. Since this week, the balls are already in the shop window and the preparations for the big Christmas show are already in full swing, and that while it is only July.
“When you come in you think it’s Christmas,” laughs one of the visitors at the entrance. And yes, those who walk into the garden center are immediately confronted with a neatly covered table for the Christmas dinner complete with shimmering Christmas balls, gigantic red bows and a large Christmas tree.
“I am normally very much of Christmas, but this is very early,” the woman laughs. “Time is enough from September or October.”
“This is the biggest nonsense there is of course.”
“This is the biggest nonsense there is of course”, a man frowns along the Christmas display. “I think it’s a bit about commerce,” his wife adds. “It’s very early, but I’m not that Christmas that way anyway.”
“It is a phenomenon that has blown over from America: Christmas in July,” explains manager Gerri Veraart. “It is certainly early, but we need a long run -up if we want to be ready with our Christmas show in September. We want to make everyone enthusiastic and get a bit of those Christmas jitters forward.”
That is why the mistleteks are already hung at the start of the store and that one famous Christmas album from Mariah Carey can also be dusted again. “It is very special, the children really like it,” laughs a lady who is drinking something diagonally opposite the Christmas noise with her children. “But it is strange to see Christmas in the summer. That is just like with the gingerbread cookies, they also come to the store earlier.”
“I am completely in the holiday atmosphere now, so it is not yet necessary.”
Also ‘grandmother’, who has a cup of coffee, should not think about the holiday in December. “I am completely in the holiday atmosphere now so it doesn’t have to be. I think it is a bit exaggerated.”
Behind the scenes at the garden center you can hear the Christmas elves at work if you listen carefully. Well, the employees then. “Here the set pieces are already made for Christmas”, with a big jerk the door of the workshop on the site is open.
“I can understand that people think it is a bit exaggerated, but we also want them a bit trigger“, laughs Gerri. He walks through the workshop past façades of houses, life -sized plates and cutlery and an almost royal gap, all of wood.” At our office, the creative things are devised, we have been working on the upcoming Christmas from the beginning of January. I live there all year. “
