My Favorite Things
My Favorite Things Boutique has been a fixture in Lancaster for almost 30 years. The shop, located at 501 North High Street in Lancaster, welcomed its first customers during a Christmas Open House shopping event on the first weekend of November in 1991. Many people think of it as a Christmas shop, but there is so much more to this unique store. Let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at this fabulous shopping destination.
Sue Lewis had always wanted to open a gift shop. Her daughter, Candie, loved to sell things. As a child, Candie spent countless hours playing her favorite game of pretending to run a store. It seemed inevitable that this mother-daughter duo would work together to launch one of downtown Lancaster’s most distinctive shops.
With a love of all things Victorian (“We both had always been drawn to things that are frilly, lacey, and shiny,” as Candie put it), Sue and Candie decided that those items would be their main focus. They wanted to put their hearts and souls into selling what they both loved. Thus, the name of their shop: My Favorite Things Boutique.
Sue and Candie’s father, John, purchased the property and set to work renovating it. Don opened a space close to the building for his own business, Miller Lewis Insurance. The house was gutted and restored to reflect Victorian styles. The boutique began small in just a few rooms of the house. Don even considered moving his insurance business there. But then the shop really took off, more rooms of the house were filled with unique retail items, and Don stayed where he was.
Candie admits that she is a shopaholic, and that’s another great reason to own a store: “I get to shop for all these wonderful things, but I don’t have to keep them!” Each year, Sue and Candie traveled to the Gift Mart in Atlanta to select the perfect items for their store. Candie recalls these shopping excursions with her mother as some of her happiest memories. They both loved decorating the boutique with gifts and décor that shifted according to each holiday and season.
Without a doubt, the biggest holiday at My Favorite Things Boutique is Christmas. You will be amazed at the incredible variety of decorations and other seasonal items that are available here. Wander through the shop and in room after room you will find Christmas decorations and trees – and each tree is decorated in a unique theme to inspire and entertain. We guarantee you have not experienced anything as over-the-top as Christmas at My Favorite Things Boutique. You simply must see it to believe it!
After Christmas, you’ll want to come back and visit the boutique throughout the year. This will become your go-to place for seasonal décor, luxurious hand poured soaps, collector’s items, sumptuous home furnishings, candles, baby gifts, sparkling Park Lane Jewelry, dolls, and delectable gourmet treats. You’ll soon discover that My Favorite Things Boutique offers a wide variety of your favorite things!
