Town looks forward to tourist seasons to help revive business
CHRISTMAS -- If you drive through the town of Christmas, you'd never know it was the holiday season. Unlike the bustling shoppers and heavy traffic that usually characterize this time of year, in Christmas, store fronts sit vacant and business is dead.
At Santa's Workshop, a store devoted entirely to Christmas merchandise, there are no holiday shoppers. Owner Shannon Tesch thinks that could be because residents are going to the super stores for the big markdowns.
"Well, I think they like to go to the big department stores in town; some of them probably don't think to go to a Christmas store to look for gifts," says Tesch.
This is also a slow time of year for other businesses in Christmas, but at least they have the big snowmobile tourist season to look forward to.
"The reservations start Christmas day, more the day after Christmas, and we should be busy from then on until the snow goes away," says Melinda Strand, manager of the White Pine Lodge in Christmas.
Across the street at Foggy's Steakhouse, tables are empty this time of year because the tourists haven't arrived yet, and there aren't enough local residents to support the business.
"Well, the Munising area hasn't grown at all. We've actually regressed in the last 20 years; we've lost more industry than we've created. It's all the economics of the area. We're struggling," says Floyd St. Amur of Foggy's Steakhouse.
But in a few weeks, St. Amur expects his restaurant to be be filled with hungry snowmobilers. But for Santa's Workshop, unfortunately, the next few months are likely to remain slow. That's the way it's been every winter.
When does it pick up again? In July and August, the peak of the U.P.'s tourist season, when the thousands of travelers who pass through the town will once again start thinking about Christmas.
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