'Just Little Things to Go With the Trees'

If, on the second day of Christmas, your true love gives you two turtle doves, they were probably purchased at the Christmas shop in Boxford.

Plastic white doves--with authentic features attached--are one of thousands and thousands of yuletide trinkets sold at this seven-room veritable Disneyland of the Christmas season open one month a year just 20 miles north of Cambridge. Maybe your true love would be more interested in the seven varieties of tinsel, 15 shapes and sizes of candles, or dozen-odd varieties of plastic berry and plant clusters--from assorted nuts to fir and cranberry sprays, ranging from 49c to $1.25.

This paradise of Christmas cheer started about 12 years ago in one room of the old house on the property of the Highlands tree nursery. "We used to just sell ribbons and candles, just little things to go with the trees," Jean Lock, who runs the shop and nursery with her husband says. Soon the operation spread into seven full rooms of the house. "With a staple gun and a can of gold spray paint, you can really make the inside sparkle," says Lock, describing the shop's current decor.

And sparkle they do, with nine fully lit artificial Christmas trees, rooms wallpapered with tin foil, hanging Styrofoam candy canes, and 15 varieties of ball ornaments. With gift-shop incense, and tintinnabulating carols on the stereo, and snow painted on all the windows, the Locks have created a mecca that is more than a mere gift shop; it is the ultimate expression of the American Christmas spirit.

If you look hard enough, you can find every conceivable type of holiday item in the shop. But while browsing, let the buyer beware. Step on one section of carpet in the corner of the candle room, and you'll trigger a whole manger scene--complete with music, lights, hay, and even a flying angel--on one side of the room. A lifesize model child sleeps in a bed in the middle of one room, and in another corner, the likeness of Santa himself snoozes in his rocker.

Santa, in fact, is all over the Locks' shop. There are 10-inch figures of Santa holding a tennis racquet, or slouching over canes. There are Santa yo-yos and candles in the shape of the big red gift-giver. There are Santa hats and Santa pictures, Santa frisbees and Santa mugs and Santa music boxes.

But come December 25, all the Santas and their company on the shelves of this old New England farmhouse will be gone--sold or packed away for the 11-month off-season. And the Locks will take a rest from what Jean calls their "weekend encounter that got a little out of hand."