CHRISTMAS AT KRAYNAK’SSFlb

By Jeanne Starmack

From year to year, people keep coming back

The Hermitage store’s displays draw people from Pittsburgh, Erie, Akron and Cleveland.

HERMITAGE, Pa. — Well, you did it again — you put off buying Christmas gifts until the last minute.

What happened this time? Maybe after anxiously checking the Dow every day for two straight months, you weren’t in the mood.

Maybe your brain is drained of ideas for all those hard-to-buy-for people — your boss, your secretary, your daughter’s best friend, your garbage man, your spouse.

C’mon, shake it off already — it’s Christmastime; it’ll be here in three days.

Go to Kraynak’s in Hermitage. You can find just about anything for anyone there, and while you’re there, you’ll get an infusion of what you need most — no, not spiked eggnog. Hold the eggnog. Christmas spirt.

That’s because Christmas is everywhere in there. The 20,000-square-foot store and two acres of greenhouses on East State Street are like another world. We’re talking rooms dedicated to wreaths. To lights. To outdoor decorations. To tree ornaments. To plants and poinsettias — the place has a full-line greenhouse.

In the main store, they have candy. And books. And cards. And toys. And cut flowers. And little carousels that really go around.

They have a section for licensed sports items that’s stuffed full of Steelers and Browns paraphernalia, though you can get Penn State and Ohio State mementos, too.

They even have a model-train department.

Chances are, you’ve been to Kraynak’s before. Even if you don’t live in the Sharon, Hermitage and Farrell area, you may have made the pilgrimage from Youngstown, Cleveland, Akron, Erie or Pittsburgh.

Store manager Dan Zippie, who’s the grandson of the founder, John Kraynak, said they don’t keep a count of how many people go through every year.

“It’s a destination point during the holidays,” he said, with lines out the door on weekends and a 15-minute wait to get in.

That’s largely because of the store’s elaborate displays of Christmas scenes, different every year, in its area called Santa’s Christmasland. This year, 16 displays in four rooms include the Nutcracker and Twelve Days of Christmas and feature kid-pleasing characters such as Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Disney princesses Cinderella and Belle.

In the last room, the designers have created a Nativity scene with some unusual characters in it.

Predictably, there’s a donkey. But there’s also a giraffe, a llama with her baby, a zebra, some geese, a leopard, a tiger and some rabbits. They’re gathered adoringly around a manger in the theme “ All creatures great and small.” In that room, there’s also a big, stuffed lion sitting with two small, stuffed lambs at his side. It’s the store’s effort, said Zippie, at capturing the true spirit and peace of the season.

Many people came every year when they were kids. Now, they bring their kids to travel that 300-foot walk of displays that include more than 100 decorated trees.

Lois Ross of West Middlesex used to bring her four kids. Now they’re all in their 30s, she said while standing in the greenhouse one day last week. But the tradition continues with her nonetheless — with her were her grandkids, Katerina Dobosh, 3, and Aleksei Dobosh, 2.

Katerina’s display favorite? Dora the explorer. Aleksei’s? “Elmo!”

The store starts planning the displays in January. Twenty-five people at any given time pitch in to help display coordinator Renny Heath, Zippie said. The floral designers assist, he said. “Cashiers, salespeople — all help in some form.”

George and John Kraynak Jr., who own the store, are also involved in planning the displays, he said.

Many of the characters in them are for sale. If you like that cute nodding bear in the Nutcracker scene, unfortunately, it’s not. But the big toy soldiers standing around it are.

If you see an ornament you like on one of the trees, Zippie said, you can make a note of which tree — they’re all numbered. Then, someone can help you find that ornament in the store.

If you like a whole tree, the store can help you assemble it, he said.

Zippie has a hectic job, he acknowledged, but it’s a fun one. He likes seeing the looks on the kids’ faces as they come through the display, he said.

“Are you jammin’?” asked Melissa Szekely of Boardman as her son Noah, 2, and his cousin Kamryn Duritza, 3, danced to Christmas music in the Christmasland aisle. It was their second walk through that day.

Kamryn’s favorite part? “Cinderella and Belle.” Noah’s? That wooden firetruck he happened to be standing in front of.

But someone special waits at the end of the displays. “Santa!” said Kamryn. The kids can get their pictures taken with him.

Unless you’re beyond help, Kraynak’s will shake you out of any Grinch-like doldrums. Then go home, prop up your feet and have some eggnog.

starmack@vindy.com