The Red Christmas Dress
Everyone loves a good Christmas story, right?
One of those stories that leaves a warm glow in its wake?
Well, this one started here at Sound Styles, back in October, when we were planning our Christmas window decor. My mom was in the market for a “traditional” window display. She didn’t say it, but traditional to her meant that displays be based on the true meaning of Christmas and being thankful. But how do you do that? So, when Shelly did her interpretation of traditional, with red and green decorations and, in addition, dressed one of our mannequins in a strapless red dress that she fashioned from red foil wrapping paper, my mom came close to blowing a gasket and she told me so. “The window needs to display our clothes”, she said.
I calmed her down and explained that people walking by seemed to enjoy the Little Red Dress. They’d stop, look and often smile. Several people had even come in to say so. She backed off. But only for a while. I found myself defending that dress several more times. Then a customer came in and announced that there was only one item in our whole store that she wanted to try on, and guess what it was? We had a good laugh. So,the dress stayed in the window where it was greatly enjoyed until just a couple days ago. Then it got a new home. You see, Stanley (who periodically shops for his wife in our store) wanted to have some fun and give it to his wife for Christmas. Yep, you read that right! So Mary undressed the mannequin and wrapped up the LRD in a box with a ribbon and watched for Stanley to visit Starbucks across the street from us, which he did that very afternoon. He was surprised and absolutely delighted when Mary delivered the package to him.
Later that evening I received an alert on my phone, and it was Stan’s wife. She had posted online that she had opened the gift, loved it, but would have to exchange it for a larger size. Ha!
Pretty good story, huh? Well it doesn’t end there.
I ran into Stanley the next morning at Starbucks and he greeted me with a big hug and told me how she’d had to open the package and just how much fun they’d had doing so. Best Christmas gift he’d ever given and it wasn’t even washable!
Nope. It still isn’t over.
Then I had lunch with my dear brother,who has dealt with Type 1 Diabetes most of his life and recently had his leg amputated, and I was telling him the LRD story because it encompasses much of what Christmas means to me. To me it’s about excitement and wonder and joy – my true meaning. He said we should have Shelly do a New Years paper dress and people could bid on it and we could give the money to a charity. Then she could do a paper Valentine’s dress, a paper St. Patrick’s dress,etc. You get the picture.
Upon returning to the store I filled Julie and Shelly in on the paper dress lunch conversation and they had just been talking about the same idea. Wow! They were both excited.
When I told my mom that evening how that “gasket blowing” LRD had brought smiles to so many faces she got a tear in her eye. Maybe we could donate the money to the Diabetes Foundation I asked her. The tear rolled down her cheek. So our non-traditional window display of 2013 will always be remembered as the LRD surprise blessing to many. Hmmmmmm… funny how things work.
Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us.
May you each find your own Christmas story and may the true excitement, joy and wonder of Christmas fill your hearts.
~Dolores, Jenny, Mary, Julie and Shelly
The Red Christmas Dress
22 December 2013 by Jenny
20 Responses
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GREAT STORY and a GREAT IDEA. I vote to do it. It might inspire other merchants to do something similar for charity. I truly believe you can NEVER out-give God. Karen B.
Merry Christmas Karen! No, we will never out-give God. May call on you to open the bidding. Yes?
Jenny, That was a wonderful story. I am so happy I was one of your
postings so I got to read it. Thanks so much.
Marji Bigford
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 22:45:24 +0000 To: frb_marji@msn.com
Merry Christmas Marji! Thanks for following us on-line. Enjoy the holidays.
Dear Jennie, Dolores, Shelley, Mary and Julie,
That is a beautiful story, beautifully written. Thank you for adding to the real meaning of Christmas and for making me laugh first, and cry (a little) later!
Merry Christmas to all. And to quote Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one!”
Michele (your neighbor on Bell Street)
Merry Christmas Neighbor! Laughs and tears are both good. Glad you enjoyed our story.
Jenny and Gang,
Bravo! On the LRD…
Merry Christmas,
Lisa Ellstrom-Bauer
Sent from my iPhone
>
So you recognized yourself? Of course we couldn’t leave that important tidbit out. Made the story jucier don’t you think. Merry Christmas!
I loved the story of the red dress and look forward to seeing more of Shelly’s dresses!
Merry Christmas Kathy! We’ll keep you “posted”.
Thanks for the great story. I am sitting in Taipei, Taiwan spending Christmas with my daughters and new granddaughter. Your story made me laugh and a little homesick. As much as I am glad to be here, I am also missing Christmas in Edmonds. Tori Peters
Merry Christmas Tori clear over there! Enjoy your girls and new bambino. We are keeping Edmonds well while you are gone. See you when you get back.
I sure enjoyed reading your wonderfully written story. One you all will not forget and how exciting to maybe see a Valentines dress in the window!!
Nancy, Merry Christmas! First there’ll be a New Year’s dress coming this Friday. Stay tuned…….
What a great story….would love to put a face to the dear man who gave that classy red dress to his wife….and started your wheels rolling for more thoughtful giving by all of you at Sound Styles! You certainly became a happy part of the girls and my Christmas’ starting about 22 years ago…we still talk about your going that extra step! Thanks again, and Merry Christmas to you all!
Lorna Moffett (mother of Kelly and Megan!!! )
Lorna, Didn’t mean to overlook your kind comments about the little red dress story. Definitely was not the intention. Just got brought to my attention this morning (by the guy who manages our blog) that we had not responded to two comments and one was yours. Oh, the world should be perfect, huh? Anyway, thanks to all of you for being part of our Christmas story throughout the years, Bill being the most recent addition. Hugs to all of you and thanks for all your support! Cheers, Jenny
LOVE it, Jenny! You guys have so much fun, and are so creative! The donations to diabetes are a terrific idea! Hmmmm…gifts to the Christ Child??!! Doesn’t get much more traditional!! XO, Ellen
Thanks Ellen! Yes, I keep telling my mom that God works in mysterious ways, traditional and non-traditional. Never know what He has planned. Gotta love it!
Thank you for the sweet LRD story. It evolved so beautifully into giving to help others. Thank you for some nice laughs today, and the warmth of “the rest of the story.” Jeanne
Jeanne, My apologies for not responding to your kind comments concerning the LRD story. Glad you enjoyed it, by the way. Somehow your comment got overlooked which was not our intention. Was alerted this morning to that fact, thus my delayed response. Happy New Year and thanks for following us online. To 2014, Jenny