A little before noon on Oct. 5, Richard Morrison was hanging a glass ornament that resembled a head of garlic on a small metal tree. It was one of several trees that had been installed inside a John Derian store in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, where Mr. Morrison, a floor manager, and his colleagues had been setting up holiday décor since Sept. 30.
It was the earliest that John Derian, 61, had begun the Christmas season at his store since he started his namesake retail business in New York in 1995.
Mr. Morrison, 36, was one of five employees unpacking and arranging ornaments at the shop on Oct. 5, a balmy Thursday. As he hung the ornament, he wiped a streak of glitter from his brow. “It’s a hazard here,” he said of the glitter. Claire Cook, 28, a store manager who was also decorating, added, “If you work here, you can’t be bothered by glitter.”
Mr. Derian, who owns three stores on East Second Street, not only started the season earlier than ever this year, but he also dedicated more space than before to holiday décor by turning a shop normally used as a furniture showroom into a festive wonderland. “People don’t buy furniture as Christmas gifts,” he said, “so I thought it might be fun to do it in here.”
Inside are a dozen trees bearing hundreds of ornaments, along with wreaths; vintage garlands made of glass; papier-mâché tree toppers; and a giant snowman named Tony that Mr. Derian bought from an antiques dealer in Rhode Island. He paid about $1,200 for the snowman, he said, adding that if a customer wanted to buy it, he would charge around $2,400.
