This 1882 colonial house is full of great holiday fare. The gentleman running the front was very cordial and helpful. The gift ideas are unique. Two other gift shops are next door, worth visiting.

Keith Taylor epitomizes a jolly calm when he ushers his guest into the White Pillars Christmas House before hours on an early fall morning. With Christmas still three months away, he and his wife, Yolanda, are preparing for the seasonal rush, confident that what they offer competes with and surpasses what one may obtain in a sterile online transaction. As he guides his guest inside the house, a room with collectible Willow Tree items and the department 56 Villages yields to another room featuring collectible Jim Shore ornaments, Regal angels, and Christopher Radko snowglobes. Shelf after shelf and room after room cries out, Christmas! It’s almost more sparkle than the eye can take in. The secret to embracing it, Yolanda says, is to slow down.

“This is a house of no hurries, no worries,” she says. “Once you come in here, it’s like stepping out of reality into a Christmas-welcoming environment. You may come in in a bad mood, but you can’t leave in a bad mood.” After a five-year hiatus, the Taylors partnered with Trent Cubbison to reopen White Pillars Christmas House and More several years ago. The previous owner had retired and closed the business during the Great Recession. Cubbison is the principal of East Muskingum Middle School. Yolanda is chief operations officer at Muskingum Behavioral Health. Keith, a Methodist minister, was the credit manager at Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative.