Why do we call ourselves that? There are a couple of reasons, really, but to get the full picture, you have to take a short trip back before there was a 'we'. There was a time before our little shoppe existed - before we started pouring our own soy candles in the kitchen of our home - that we ourselves fulfilled our candle yearnings with all of the typical places that our customers used to go to as well. Like them, the large, national retail candle chains and big box stores got all of our candle business because it was something we just always did. There were no local alternatives that we knew of, so, much like a person who never drove a Ferrari, we were content with driving our minivan.

Then, one day, fate intervened.

Holly Candle Shoppe materialized out of equal parts entrepreneurial dream and ingenuity via necessity. The economy was at its lowest in our lifetime, one of us was on the verge of losing our full-time job and both of our corporate 401k's were tanking. Since nobody was hiring, we decided to reinvest in ourselves and become our own boss. The fact that it became a candle store was a luck of the draw. It very well could have become a flower shoppe or maybe even a hand-made jewelry store, but because we so loved candles and by this point in our lives, we were all ready making them ourselves to sell online and at craft shows the natural progression was for us to open a retail location for a candle business.

When it comes to having a successful retail store, location means everything, but for us, location meant only one thing: it had to be local, as in, Downtown Holly, Michigan. We've lived here for a number of years all ready and it was home to our family and the historic downtown area was exactly the look and feel we were going for when we envisioned our main street boutique.

On May 1, 2009, the ribbon was cut and Holly Candle Shoppe opened its doors for the first time at 211 South Saginaw Street, also known as MainStreet in Historic Downtown Holly. Our new retail space was big enough to be a comfortably sized showroom as well as offered us enough space in the back to move our candle manufacturing operation out of our home. Now, we're pouring several batches of fresh, premium soy wax daily; hand mixing the colors and fragrances and bringing a little joy to the faces of everybody who walks in our store.

In the short amount of time we've been open, we've fast-become a part of this community. Unfamiliar faces from near and far have become our regular happy customers and we hear every day how people are delighted that we are here and how much they enjoy our hand-poured natural soy candles. Many of them tell us how they used to visit the same national retail candle chains and big box stores we did before our shoppe opened its doors and how now we are their candle place. Inevitably these remarks lead to comments about 'Buying Michigan' and how happy they are that we're a local business, which leads us to the quote at the top of this page.

We must be doing something right. In October of 2009, we were awarded the 2009 Main Street Oakland County Outstanding Sign Award in recognition for the outdoor signage of our Downtown Holly store. In the same year, we made the top ten list of Best Gift Shops in Detroit as voted by our customers in the WDIV 4 the Best competition.

If you haven't guessed it by now, we're very proud to be a locally-owned business from Holly, Michigan and we're very happy to know how much our customers enjoy our candles and that they like the fact that we're here. It is through all of their kind comments and all that you have read here that we comfortably and enthusiastically say that our little retail store in Historic Downtown Holly known as Holly Candle Shoppe is Your Neighborhood Candle Place.

Want to read more? Please go HERE to read some wonderful customer comments about us.

What do you think about us? We would love to hear your comments.