A review of this popular local business and candy store, just in time for the holidays!
Kelly’s Country Store is a specialty gift shop located in Grand Island, New York. They offer a wide variety of different gifts to satisfy nearly anyone for any occasion. In addition to the gift shop, Kelly’s Country Store also has a full old fashioned candy counter full of candies, chocolates and more! Kelly’s is a great place to visit for family members of all ages, especially during the holidays!
The gift shop!
This is a very special time of year to visit Kelly’s Country Store because the whole place is carefully decorated inside and out. The Kelly family that owns and operates this store takes great care in seeing that each room throughout the store is beautifully decorated in great detail.
In the first picture, you can see the outside of Kelly’s Country Store. It is a barn-style structure with holiday decorations accompanied by their everyday decorations (I.e. The giant cow head mounted to the far right of the picture). What is not pictured is the Christmas tree farm just to the left side of the picture. Many families come from near and far to purchase their Christmas trees from Kelly’s. Some even make a day of it by picking their tree, then going inside to pick out a few gifts, candies, chocolates and get a picture with Santa!
The second picture shows a small section inside the store where a few of their holiday-themed gifts are on display. You can see their diversity throughout the store, in this picture alone there are decor pieces, toys, ornaments, and gift bags.
The third picture (pictured below) shows the decor and gifts that expand even to the ceilings. The items hanging from the ceiling are mostly vintage country items such as baskets and galvanized steel containers.
Everything inside the gift shop is thoughtfully on display, even if it appears disorganized and chaotic.
Kelly’s Country Store is special around here for more than their variety of gifts. They also offer delicious chocolate treats (pictured below) that are molded in various shapes such as Christmas trees, snowmen, motorcycles, and teddy bears. These chocolate treats make excellent stocking stuffers for Christmas or gifts for any occasion.
The candy counter!
My favorite reason for visiting Kelly’s Country Store is simply for their old fashioned candy counter. It is clear that the candy stored in the glass jar is not made by the Kelly’s but they offer a vast variety of candies to choose from. People still enjoy the feeling of nostalgia that comes from choosing “a scoop of this and a scoop of that”! Nostalgia and sentiment like this is priceless, timeless, and tradition to so many families.
The chocolate display counter is full of homemade truffles, peanut butter filled chocolates, and chocolates covered in nuts. The peanut butter filled chocolates happen to be one of my husband’s favorites. They are creamy, chocolatey, and perfectly filled with nutty peanut butter! The fresh smell of chocolate is like a hug for the senses! This section of Kelly’s is another magical element of nostalgia that is offered only by family-owned businesses.
Holiday cheer!
As mentioned earlier in the article, Kelly’s offers so much to their patrons. Another element that they offer in the back end of the store is Santa’s Workshop! This, of course, is only during the Christmas season (as Santa needs to be in the North Pole for the rest of the year). Leading up to this beautiful room are two display cases. One (pictured above) is decorated with some of the most vintage toys and decor pieces in the entire store. These items are for nostalgic display only, not for sale.
The second display case (pictured below) is decorated for Christmas, as the rest of the store is, and is the perfect introduction to Santa’s Workshop!
Finally, we reach the back of the store and enter a room that brings out the child in all of us, Santa’s Workshop! The room is quite large and decorated from top to bottom. The Christmas scenery perfectly lines the outer walls of the room, allowing the center to be open for families to gather, gaze at the decor and wait their turn to visit with Santa. The decor is pictured in the three pictured below.
The left side of the entry pictured above
The left-center display pictured above
The back left display pictured above with play mats for the children waiting for Santa
The perfect end to a day of candy, chocolates, Christmas trees, and gift purchasing is having the opportunity to visit with the big man himself! Santa Clause. He, unfortunately, was out feeding the reindeer when we were there but, I am told the experience is timeless!
