Meet Our Queen of Christmas

By Sylvia Whitman | Photos by Jordan Kelly-Laviolette

All her married life, Michelle Witzer served as her husband’s right-hand woman. Four decades ago, they followed her in-laws from Philadelphia to Sarasota and worked in the family’s lowboy trailer manufacturing company. Steve Witzer became a serial entrepreneur—owned a restaurant, bought and sold real estate, ran “multiple businesses,” says Michelle. “As he would call it, I was his clean-up person.” When he retired, he told Michelle, “‘You helped me all of my life, let me do something for you.’” She had long dreamed of owning a gift store, so he built one to her specs, a homey building with a front porch and a faux-wood floor. He even painted it her favorite color, purple.

Michelle opened her perfect present in November 2016, becoming Sarasota’s unofficial “Queen of Christmas.” Although the store stocks wedding and birthday gifts—umbrellas in a bottle, flamingo hand towels, baby onesies that say “I’m the reason Mommy wines”—Christmas never goes out of season. Flocked and lit trees tower over tables of quirky nutcrackers; majestic angels gaze down on ruddy-cheeked Santas; snowmen beam among sleds and stockings and Advent countdown calendars. Ornaments dangle and glisten along an entire wall: patriotic marshmallows, shimmery jellyfish, painted suitcases, pirouetting ballerinas, smooching guppies.    

“Christmas is my favorite holiday, ever since I was a child,” Michelle explains. “My parents made it magic.” Raised outside Philly, the youngest of three, Michelle never saw a tree or a package in their house until Christmas morning. Then she and her brother and sister stepped into a wonderland of lights and presents and toy trains chugging around the base of an elaborately decorated evergreen. “Santa brought all that stuff,” she says. “I can still see it as a child. We just always BELIEVED.”

Although she and Steve couldn’t match that feat as parents—“we were so busy”—Christmas remains a big occasion for a family that has grown from two kids to five grandkids and a great-grandchild. Now she shops not just for her brood but for everyone who walks into her purple cottage. Every January she travels to Atlanta to place her next Christmas order, always aiming to add at least one new vendor so that her many repeat customers will find surprises among familiar favorites. She’s especially particular about her Santas. “Some are not so jolly, so I always look at the Santas’ faces before I purchase them.”

The rest of her wares she buys from the New York market in August and from a few local artisans. “I could fill this store to the top,” she says. “You have to think of what other people like, not just what you like.”

Although many brick-and-mortar shops struggle to compete with online merchants, Shelly’s Gift & Christmas Boutique has thrived. “There’s still the people who want to touch and feel,” Michelle says. She also credits the location—just blocks from Trader Joe’s on Tamiami Trail—which she eyed for years. Unlike at the mall, customers can pull up and park steps from the front door. “I wanted it to be like a home,” Michelle says. “We tried to make it warm. You come in, and you want to be here.” Readers of a local publication named it the region’s best gift store in 2019.

Even the Christmas side of the shop hums all year long. Tourists stop by for ornaments that often serve as vacation souvenirs. Business slows a bit in the summer; the boutique cuts back to five days a week, and Michelle takes her vacation. But by the time the soundtrack switches to carols on November 1, the doors remain open Monday through Sunday through the holiday season. The store’s anniversary celebration on the first weekend in November doubles as a pre-Christmas sale, with 25% off one item and snacks throughout the day.

Three years into her role as proprietor, Michelle still feels thrilled. Her four employees—“the girls”—run the register, but she shows up almost every day. “We’re just like family here. I enjoy everything about the store. I enjoy the customers. I enjoy shopping for it,” she says. “The whole thing is exciting.”

Only Steve is missing. Less than a year after the grand opening, he died in a car crash on Tamiami Trail. Wiping away tears, Michelle says it’s important to include him in the success story.  “He’s such a part of it,” she says. “I swear he’s here all the time, too. He was a wonderful man. This was his gift to me.” Michelle and her staff talk about him often, how he used to sit in the chairs up front. “He talked to every customer that came in,” Michelle says. “He loved it as much as I did.”

She also continues with other activities they both loved—spending time with family and fishing from their boat. But the store gives her purpose as well as pleasure. Finding and sharing “the perfect gift,” she can extend the magic of her childhood.

How long does she see herself minding the store? “As long as I can,” she says.

For more information, visit Shelly’s Gift and Christmas Boutique, 4420 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-260-8905, shellysgiftandchristmasboutique.com.