It’s 9:30 a.m. and the mall has just opened. Despite the early hour, there is already a steady stream of customers pouring in through the entrance, wallets ready.
Overhead are wreaths of green plastic pinned to the ceiling, lit by tiny white lights. The faint melodies of holiday songs can be heard playing from stores on either side of the building. It is Christmas season at the Rideau Centre.
Christmas is a familiar hurdle for some at the Rideau Centre. Such is the case with Tania Brosseau, 33, who is seeing her third Christmas as store manager at Sephora, a popular cosmetics boutique. Brosseau said she has worked at a myriad of retail stores across Canada for 13 years, and she has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the holiday season.
Brosseau said one of the most rewarding experiences for her is seeing repeat customers. She cited a group of three women and their young daughters who come to Ottawa each year from Kingston, Ont. to shop at Sephora.
“We always see them and it’s just so much fun because they love coming in,” she said.
Despite this warm holiday memory, Brosseau said she has seen what happens when people get too wrapped up in the commercial and material side of Christmas.
“People become very obsessive about getting that one sweater,” she explained.
Brosseau recalled an incident a few years ago when she was working at a Gap location in Calgary.
“I remember these two women literally just going at it, pulling at this one sweater – that was a return – and [saying] ‘I want it!’ ‘No, I want it!’ It was absolutely pathetic. And I’ve never seen anything like that here.”
Besides all the craziness, sometimes that perfect gift can be found completely by accident.
Just ask Owen Matson, 18, who operates the Ottawa branch of Santa Ville, a small specialty shop that deals in personalized ornaments.
One Christmas experience that stood out to Matson occurred at the chain’s Barrie, Ont. location, when a lady was passing by the store and spotted one of its ladybug piggy banks.
“She just drew a beeline, clapping and screaming because her best friend’s [newborn daughter’s] entire nursery is done in ladybugs. So she sat there ecstatic for about 20 minutes while we put [the daughter’s] name on [the piggy bank] and date of birth.”
Despite heartwarming stories such as this, the Christmas season wears on some people. Ben Holland, 22, works at The Source. He said he has a “special place” in his heart for the Christmas carollers he hears while on the job during the weekend.
“Retail associates worldwide hate Christmas carols, I can assure you that,” Holland said.
“Customers seem to like it . . . until they’re trying to have a conversation with [the workers] and then you can’t hear anything. Because [the carollers] stand in the halls down there and they completely flood the entire mall with singing.”
But, like Brosseau, Holland said he finds one of the redeeming features of the season is talking with customers, who he said are always in good spirits during the Christmas holidays.
In Leanne Norman’s opinion, Christmas is what you make of it. A mother of two teenage daughters, Norman, 49, is doing the necessary shopping.
“I think that there are two sides to Christmas — keep them in balance. I enjoy the shopping part as much as the other [part].”
The other part, of course, is the family-oriented aspect of the holidays. This part is sometimes lost amongst the hectic shopping, wrapping and gift-giving all of us are familiar with.
Some people though, won’t be sorry when the Christmas shopping ends.
“Bah humbug,” Holland said. “In the most fun and hilarious possible way, bah humbug. It’s a great season, but we’ll all be happier when it’s over.”