Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe

Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe was Mom’s favorite stop in our Scotland journey
She’s a HUGE Christmas fan & easily gets sucked into all things dealing w/​the holidays
This shop was extremely dangerous…
Handpainted wooden ornaments & figurines, xmas town settings, outdoor treats like bells & wind-​chimes, stockings… yup, it’s all there!
Angels, Santas, Snowmen — whatever you’re looking for to brighten up your holiday décor, you’ll find it here… and for such a small shop, I don’t know how they cram it all in!
She found lots to bring back to the US w/​her … a true 1-​of-​a-​kind remembrance of our time in Scotland
Shopkeeper wrapped everything up very well so it could travel back w/​us w/​minimal fuss. Not to mention she was nice as could be
I know when we ever come back to Edinburgh, this will be a must-​stop on our itinerary for Mom… & to make her happy, makes me happy!

Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe was sold to me when I read in the window that Sir Cliff Richard shops here, heck, if it’s good enough for Cliffy boy, it’s good enough for me. I wonder if he gave them a rendition of his Mistletoe and Wine song when he swung by.
After browsing around I couldn’t really see why Cliff was all over it like a flannel, there isn’t much to it. In comparison to the other Christmas shops in Edinburgh, which bizarrely there’s rather a lot of, then it doesn’t really match up.
As a tradition I always get one of my friends Christmas decorations for her birthday and as she had a baby this year I’m going to send her «babies first Christmas» baubles to add to her tree. I saw a really cute one here in the shape of a heart but at the price of £7.99 I’m sure I could find something nicer and a bit more stylish.
The baubles and decorations here are very traditional and very expensive for what they are. What’s more, it felt really weird hearing Christmas songs when I’m just about to book my summer holidays.

A Christmas themed shop right bang slap on the historic Royal Mile. Jackpot!
I’ve enthused in one of my other Christmas shop reviews about how I become some sort of juvenile, santa and magic believer when the calendar hits the 1^st December, and I’ll do the same here.
Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe gives you the opportunity to open a door and step into a world of enchanted, sparkly delights, where Christmas happens all year round if you want it to, with the shop space being your winter wonderland arena, where you can marvel at all the decorations and visualise your future tree, even if it’s scorching hot outside (unlikely).
There are some beautiful decorations here, which include an Alice in Wonderland and a historical range, with the adornments leaning towards the classic side of Christmas tree decoration rather than being super modern, but I like the traditional side of the festival season, so that suits me.

Wow another Christmas Shoppe on the Royal Mile. The question is it special and does it stand out?
My advice to you is to go up the road a wee way to slightly superior Nutcracker Chritmas Shop. There is nothing wrong with this shoppe, but it doesn’t really compare to the other shoppes like it. Some might say it doesn’t have that Christmas magic. It is suspiciously similar in aesthetic to its rival shop up the road but doesn’t have the same appeal from its displays. I found the stock rather bare, the shelves rather empty. Admitedly at the time of writing it is the middle of July but nonetheless this is a YEAR ROUND Christmas shoppe! What they do sell is fine, the same sort of gifts and treats you might expect, at slightly higher than comfortable prices.
Not a bad place, with okay if slightly highly priced stock in an unfortunetly small space that doesn’t quite compare to other Edinburgh Christmas Shoppes (there we can speak of them in plural must say something profound!)

It always seems to me that shops manage to get christmas into thier stores earlier and earlier each year. Hell, I’ve seen christmas adverts in september before — what next? Will we just have christmas all year around?
The reality is closer than you think with Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. This place sells christmas decorations, cards and everything else you could associate with that special day that happens once a year the other 364 days.
The shop (sorry! Shoppe) itself is small, dark and crampped. The staff certainly must have a screw loose to handle christmas every day — but do all seem friendly and helpful.
A word of warning though, if you go in June, be prepared to have ‘White Christmas’ stuck in your head for the next 6 months.

I don’t like all the forced niceness. corny TV, and goodwill that comes with the festive period, but as a shamelessly materialistic being I do really, really like receiving costly and often unnecessary gifts. I also quite like the trees.
Staffed by people whom I imagine are either very lonely, insane, or probably both, this store caters to the more twee and traditional end of the festive market, and as a lover of Christmas trees I could quite literally have a field day in here. I still don’t see how it can manage a years worth of trading though.

What’s up with the all year round Christmas stores in Edinburgh?
One is a novelty, but two (maybe even three) is a bit of a strange one. I dunno why this place is here, dunno how it stays in business and can’t imagine who would go in it, really. Apart from me, of course, and that was to see if there was anything to be fussed about.
I love Christmas, but I generally like to start my festive spirit around late November if I’m feeling particularly holly or jolly. I think having this store here kind of takes away from that excitement. You would have to love Christmas more than life to work here, or else you’d go mental.
Best kept for just before the arrival of the red suited fat man.

Another year-​round Christmas shop. I came here in October looking for fairy lights for a project I was working on. Surprisingly they don’t stock fairy lights and the friendly guy told me to try at Homebase.
However I browsed around and saw that they have almost everything else to bring cheer to your home for the merry season. It’s not huge but certainly has a selection of decorations and Christmassy knickknacks either for yourself or as a gift. Whether you want to Christmas shop for it all year-​round, I’ll leave that option to you.

Edinburgh really is a diverse city.
There are a few Christmas shops in the city, including this gem at the bottom of the Royal Mile. I live in the Holyrood area so always walk past this treasure cavern of glitter, sequins and cinnamon. It’s really nice to be able to be surrounded by fake snow and santa’s in the middle of July. Yup, I’m the sort of person who loves that stuff.
Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe is very small, whenever I’ve been in with more than one other person I’ve had to leave because there simply isn’t enough space. Saying that, however, it is not often that people venture that far down the Royal Mile, let alone visit a Christmas Shop. Although Cliff Richard once went in and bought a tree hanging.
It’s a really quaint place and I recommend it whole-​heartedly for the little kids inside everyone.

This is the sort of place I would normally love during the festive season however I was bitterly disappointed when I popped in last December to buy some Christmas tree lights. To my amazement, this place didn’t sell them. They hadn’t run out, they don’t stock them. I couldn’t believe it! Yeah they sell pretty bobbles but if a Christmas shop wont stock Christmas lights (FYI which are hard to come by on the high street since the death of Woolworths) then that’s a big fat fail in my book.