Always Christmas - A Michigan Christmas Wonderland

Everyone knows about Bronner’s in Frankenmuth, but Aldridge’s Always Christmas is a bit of a secret kept by the nearby towns. Not as many people have heard of it, but the ones who have will generally tell you it’s the next best thing to Bronner’s (though, personally, I like it more).

Located on the left in Michigan's Canterbury Village (and during the Christmas season the whole Olde World castle-place, not just this store, is decked out in displays), it gets good business year-round but during the months of November and December prepare for a crowd. You can literally spend hours here and still find new stuff to look at (I speak from experience).

If you take the main entrance, you walk up to the castle on stairs painted red and green with lights lining the steps for nighttime and upon entering are greeted by a 5-foot Santa. Then you step through the final door and it has become Christmas, no matter what month it is. The other way to come in takes you through thick, old-fashioned double doors right to the front of a blue and white Christmas fairy tale castle that stretches to the height of the second floor. Cash registers are located next to both of these doors, but you don’t have to buy anything to have fun here!

The decoration: Besides the fact that the for-sale items are décor on their own, large plastic ornaments dangle from the ceiling. All around the tops of the walls run shelves which host everything from life-size reindeer to polar bears to Santa Clauses to Huskies. Knights in armor ‘guard’ various halls and doors. Lit trees of every color are everywhere. Then there is the aforementioned impressive Christmas Castle on the first floor- with Santa available during Nov/Dec.

Take a short set of stairs down to the ground floor and you’ll be in a forest of Christmas trees, ranging from small to average to you-would-need-a-mansion size, or traditional green to purple or pink to snow-covered.

Back on the first floor there is an entire room dedicated to Department 56 Villages, all laid out beautifully on tables for you to take as much time as you like noticing the little details. Come see the Dickens’ Village, Christmas in the City, the town of A Christmas Story, or the Snow Village. They also have a fantastic Halloween one and a small Wizard of Oz section- complete with a whirling cotton tornado overhead. What that has to do with Christmas, don’t ask me, but it’s cool.

And the ornaments. Can’t forget them, as they’re all over the place. They have something for everybody. Woodsy, Irish-themed, sports, Michigan, traditional, glass, plastic, names, bulbs, shapes, shiny, every color imaginable, etc.

But how could it be Christmas without the nativity? These have their very own section, with a whole wall taken up by miniature displays (a small full-size one rests outside the main entrance).

Also, for the kids, there are animatronic animals next to the castle that put on a frequent show and a section of nothing but unique toys (in other words, not the kind you typically find at Toys-R-Us).

Let’s not forget that, like Bronner’s, Always Christmas is surrounded by a village of other amazing stores and restaurants to keep you entertained and fed throughout your day.

So, if Frankenmuth is too far away or you have already been there a few times, give Always Christmas a try!