There is still more than two months until Christmas Day, but for Joshua Maggs, yuletide cheer is about to become a year-round business.
The 22-year-old Bendigo resident is preparing to open a shop dedicated to all things festive, one that will stay open long after Santa flies home to the North Pole.
Addicted to Christmas, located in the Bendigo Bank Central building, will open on October 28.
It was Mr Maggs’ late grandmother, Rennice, who first invested in him a love for Christmas.
He thinks fondly of the December holiday, saying it was a time for his family to attend church and swap gifts at each other’s houses.
It is a passion upon which Mr Maggs has traded for the past three years, during which time he has run an online Christmas supplies store. The eBay business has completed 15,000 purchases in 2017 alone.
Until now, the online operation has happened from inside his family’s home, where boxes adorn the walls of a carport, shed and even his bedroom.
Asked about the shop’s prospects once people packed up their Christmas trees, Mr Maggs said he was confident there was a year-round demand for paraphernalia, pointing to the longevity of Maldon Christmas shop Vanilla Spice.
In fact, so popular were Christmas accouterments, his online store sold out of crackers this July.
But he will also stock homewares to keep customers coming back once Christmas time has wrapped.
What did change, however, was how people marked the occasion.
Decorative influences from afar were increasing in popularity, the proprietor said, listing German and Scandinavian decorations, as well as wooden ornaments, among this year’s most requested items.
He hopes the shop will eventually stock goods he designed personally.
That small business nous was the result of watching his parents at work; his father ran a video production company, while his mother offered private tuition.
“There’s always been business in the family and now it’s my turn,” he said, explaining he cut his teeth in retail with supermarket and delivery jobs.
Asked for his message to other young people considering a move into business, Mr Maggs’ reply was simple and enthusiastic: “Take a chance and see how it goes.”