PLAINVIEW, Minn. — “Welcome to Christmas chaos!” Deb Weinrich said as she toured through her rooms of rustic, glam and handmade Christmas pieces.
She has many favorite aspects of the seasonal show inside her home: setting up her family’s living spaces, curating the displays for people’s home inspiration and seeing people light up as they experience the show’s warm hug-like atmosphere. The mostly Christmas show, Finds on Fourth, runs Nov. 9-11 at 535 Fourth St. SW in Plainview.
“Usually prior to the show, I start having dreams about like the day of the show comes and I forgot it was show day and I’m not ready,” Weinrich said a week before the show. “Last night, I had my first one. I dreamt that I forgot to open that door and people were like outside thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know why we can’t shop here.’ But when the day comes typically there are people waiting to get in.”
People meander through the themed Christmas trees, hand-sewn ornaments, wine cork reindeer and snowmen and gnomes tucked in a cozy cabinet. Signs share the holiday spirit, from sayings of Christmas cheer to jingle all the way and have yourself a merry and magical Christmas. Once people reach the living room it’s an overwhelming wow, Weinrich said.
As furniture pieces, snowmen, jewelry, Christmas trees and soaps arrive, old rugs and plastic wrap cover the floors where hundreds of people will wander between rooms. There are about 30 Minnesota vendors who drop off items. “Then we mix and match,” Weinrich described of the set-up process. “Every year is different because we never know what we’re going to get.”
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The food, such as hot chocolate bombs, toffee and molasses cookies, fill the kitchen last.
“The craziest thing is that we actually live here, you know always. But we just set this up for a three-day show. We took all of our furniture out of the house beginning of October, well except for our couch and my husband’s recliner, we took that out a week ago because we had to hang on to that for a little while,” Weinrich said with a laugh.
While the Christmas ambiance is dazzling in her home for a second year, Weinrich started the show more than 20 years ago when their family moved to Plainview. She arranged the show around four young children before growing into The Barn at Bugle Plain in Elgin for 10 years. She loves continuing the show — “it’s just in me,” Weinrich said — with the help of friends and family.
Her adult children and grandchildren and friends set the holiday magic. They prepare their sales faces to sell all the furniture they can in three days. They spread themselves between three checkout stations for a “huge age range of customers.” And “it’s been very successful,” Weinrich said.
“They’re all really busy days,” Weinrich described. “Usually there’s not a time that there isn’t a shopper here and some of the times, it’s really, really crowded.”
The show’s shining star on top is the furniture with a variety of refinished and higher-end items, Weinrich said. There’s one key to the furniture: it’s real wood, not wood made from plastic. The one-of-a-kind, unique furniture items include dressers, tables, desks and cabinets. About four to five vendors refinish furniture for the show.
“Once you spend time with that furniture it does become your own and it’s something very unique and different. I sometimes joke with people and say, ‘This furniture at least if you decide to burn it someday it’ll burn because the plastic stuff won’t it’ll just melt,’” Weinrich said with a laugh.
“I think it’s beautiful that it’s been used by a family or maybe several families and then we can give it new life again,” Weinrich added. “That is probably my favorite, and that I think is what makes us most unique is that we have the furniture.”
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With finds entrusted to her from other family’s heirlooms, shopping at garage sales and searching Facebook Marketplace, Weinrich noted the show has “something for everyone — or almost.” Her own creations include refinished furniture, spruce arrangements and Bible nativity scenes.
When the dust and sparkles settle, the remaining items return home with vendors and into Weinrich’s storage unit until the weather warms and project season begins again. She is also a labor and delivery nurse at Olmsted Medical Center.
Weinrich finds each Christmas season special with her personal decorations delivering family memories, such as a Santa made by her dad and a collection of hand-painted Christopher Radko ornaments. She loves the tradition of the pieces and keeps to her classic decorations after the show. Her grandchildren love to see how Grandma, or Mrs. Christmas, has sprinkled holiday magic through their memories of Christmas past.
Much like elves preparing presents for Santa’s delivery, Weinrich loves the delight of working the show and seeing the sparkle in people’s eyes as they experience the show for the first time. The show is from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“People will reach out to me and say, ‘When is your show?’ Or, ‘I bought something from Cranberry Fest (in Wisconsin),’” Weinrich said. “Other people just love coming into it, right, like I love presenting it and they love coming in, it wouldn’t be any fun if nobody wanted to be here.”
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