The jaw-dropping Ottawa Christmas store you have to see

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When was the last time you spotted Christmas ornaments shaped like weightlifters, tennis racquets and kilted Santas playing bagpipes—all in the same store? Unless you’ve ventured into Tinseltown Christmas Emporium in Ottawa’s Hintonburg neighbourhood lately, I’m willing to guess “Never.”

I visited Tinseltown earlier this week while researching a story on Christmas décor for the Homes sections of the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun. (Look for it in the papers on December 14.)

The shop is jam-packed with holiday decorations from floor to ceiling. Among them, you’ll find just about every ornament you can possibly imagine—and likely a few you can’t.

There are Grinches and angels, golf carts and basketballs, snowmen and wise men, Linus and Lucy and Schroeder. And more. So much more.

And that’s just the ornaments. There’s also a big table of miniature shops and houses that you can combine into a Christmas village. Tinseltown also sells nativity scenes, tea towels, tablecloths, aprons, tree skirts, mechanical merry-go-rounds and artificial trees.

Seriously, you could spend hours in here. Hours.

But don’t take my word for it. This is an instance where a picture really is worth a thousand words. So here are a few photos to inspire your own Ottawa Christmas decorating schemes. You’re welcome.

Wait…an operational carousel?

Props for including the classics

Colour coordination can spark existential questions

Bet you don’t have a man in a pink flamingo pool toy on your tree … yet

Sweet, sweet nostalgia

May all your Christmas villages have ostriches

One last word to the wise

Don’t come in here wearing a backpack, as I did. Unsurprisingly, the place is busy (I even bumped into an Ottawa Road Trips reader, which was fun!), and the narrow aisles are lined with delicate-looking items. I spent most of my visit terrified that one random sneeze would send a bunch of crystal snowflakes or ceramic Santas crashing to the floor.

You’ll find Tinseltown Christmas Emporium at 1096 Somerset Street West in Hintonburg. These days, it’s open seven days a week. And no, this isn’t a sponsored post. I just had too much fun in this store and couldn’t resist sharing.

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As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.