Whether it’s squeezing through fire-code-violating crowds on Noel Night, running into your friends and neighbors among the shelves, or working with a bookseller for a while to get the perfect book for everyone on your list, doing your holiday shopping at Maria’s isn’t just about the books and gifts you leave with, but the excellent experience you have while you’re here.
This year, we’ve had to balance all that with making sure Maria’s is as safe an environment as possible for everyone in the store. That means doing some things we don’t want to do, like not celebrating Noel Night and limiting the number of customers in the store. But it also means we’ve been getting creative to ensure you have that excellent holiday shopping experience.
If you have been into Maria’s lately, you may have noticed the latest result of our creative efforts: the Bookmobile! The Bookmobile is our new outdoor gift wrapping/curbside pickup station. We hope it helps reduce congestion in the store, and provides an even safer way to shop with us if you’d prefer to pre-pay for books and pick them up without coming inside. More than that, though, the Bookmobile is just here as a fun way to spread some holiday cheer and give you another opportunity to chat with a bookseller while they wrap your gifts. If you come by at the right time, you might even catch us handing out some homemade cookies or Animas Chocolate hot chocolate.
So next time you’re at Maria’s Bookshop, take a minute to hang out on the sidewalk and chuckle at the absurdity and delightfulness of us gift wrapping your books in a 1970 Chevy Stepvan. We’re sure having fun with it, I hope you do too.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for shopping at local businesses. Thank you for reading books, being kind, keeping one another safe, and for continuing to care about and support Maria’s Bookshop.
Happy Holidays,
Evan