STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Christmas has found a permanent niche in Hailey.

Jane Drussel has opened a new holiday store around the corner from her Jane’s Artifacts. The new store sits next to DL Evans Bank and will offer holiday cheer throughout the year.

It’s her first holiday undertaking since she closed a holiday store in Ketchum’s Giacobbi Square. And it fills a niche since Nancy Humphrey closed her Undertakers Holiday Store at the end of the last holiday season.

“I love Christmas. It’s so fun,” said Drussel as she bustled around helping customers find the exact ornament they needed to make their Christmas bright.

Lori Jennings is among the elves working in the store. Opening the store each day comes with a unique set of responsibilities since she has to set trains to running and turn on each of the blinking nose ornaments one by one.

But it’s worth it, she says, as she sits amidst Scandinavian balsa wood cutouts and German nutcrackers and incense smokers.

“The little Christmas towns are phenomenal,” she said. “We have a Dickens set, one with a cantina and mariachi band and, I’m told, there’s a New England set in those unopened boxes.

“The kids, of course, like the candy and ornaments. And look here,” she pointed to a two-foot tall Christmas tree with stars flying through it. “We even have some outside battery-operated Christmas trees.”