Bredbo's Christmas Barn reopens doors late due to coronavirus

The town is home to Christmas Barn, a festive wonderland housing anything and everything that you could ever want to decorate your home for December 25.

While the store usually hosts its big opening weekend every June, it had to put it on hold this year due to coronavirus. What's more, owner Leanne de Smet usually makes trips to Europe and America on stock-finding missions in the first few months of the year, but coronavirus and bushfires have meant that she hasn't been on a work trip since October.

Luckily for Christmas lovers, de Smet's tendency to buy and import a lot of her own stock has proved to work in her favour during this time.

"I always have a lot of stock. I don't really know how to budget when it comes to stock. If I love it, I buy it," she says.

"We've got six containers of stock here that we are yet to open and we've got more stock yet to come. So, this year we've got plenty. And if I was being serious, we probably got plenty for next year as well.

"I dare say that there will be some retailers in Australia that are going to find it a bit tough because some of the local importers have had to reduce their stock levels. Two of the suppliers have cut between a third and a half of their lines. So if people don't do their own importing - and a lot of people don't because it's costly to do that - they're going to find it difficult to source some stock."

Saturday marked Christmas Barn's first day of business for 2020, and like every yearly opening, it did not disappoint with people coming out in mass to get their hands on this year's decorations. What did differ, however, were the conditions of entry.

Right next to the sign which says "no bah humbugs", customers were asked to fill in their name and contact details upon entry, as well as use hand sanitiser and have their temperature taken. Complimentary masks are also available for those who want them and staff are required to have their temperature taken twice a day.

"We're doing everything we can to make it safe. We don't want to have to close down now that we've only just reopened," de Smet says.

"It's so funny though, we had a lot of customers saying over the weekend that they were so worried that they were going to be locked down or that we'd get locked down and they wouldn't be able to be here this year.

"It's been a bad year, with fires and floods and everything going on. I think people are going to try and make the very best of it at Christmas. People are saying they're putting up their trees in September this year because they want some joy. A couple of people were showing me photos of the trees they have already got up."

So what Christmas decorations do people buy four months out from the main event?

In a word: everything. But while everything was in demand on the weekend, de Smet says a collection of collectable Santas from designer Mark Roberts has already proved one of the more popular items. Starting at $80 and ranging up to $795, the limited edition pieces are already walking out the door.