The Holly Leaf, where it’s Christmas all year long, will close its doors permanently at the end of 2024.

After 40 years of business in Old Colorado City, the beloved, specialty niche, Christmas-themed boutique at 2522 W. Colorado Ave. will shutter on Dec. 30.

“I did everything I could to hold on, but this year it was just too hard,” owner Julie Fabrizio said from behind her store counter Monday morning.

Chalk handwriting across the storefront’s windows both alerted customers to The Holly Leaf’s closing and enticed them to make their final purchases. Fabrizio is offering a 40% off sale on all merchandise, including Christmas tree ornaments and toppers, nutcrackers, stockings, Christmas village houses and accessories, and more.

Fabrizio said sales began declining in 2022 and 2023, after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and never recovered. COVID influenced consumers’ shopping habits and more people seem to be shopping online more frequently, rather than in brick-and-mortar stores, she said.

The Holly Leaf does not appear to have an online shop. The store’s Facebook webpage acts as its official website.

Specialty shops like Fabrizio’s rely on revenues from a robust holiday shopping season to help operate the store the rest of the year.

“January through May, business here is slow at that time. But you have to have money in the bank to run a business. My sales from January to September this year were so low, I knew I could never make it up (during the holiday shopping season),” she said.

Fabrizio’s parents opened the year-round Christmas-themed shop in Old Colorado City in 1984 and Fabrizio took it over in 1996.

The store has always been located on Colorado Avenue, though it’s moved locations a couple times. The Holly Leaf has operated at its current storefront, the former location of the Soap Box & More, since 2016. The Holly Leaf absorbed the soap shop when it moved in, after the Soap Box owner retired.

Fabrizio said the decision to close the shop was bittersweet, and she’s not sure what the future holds for her.

“It’s been a great run. Part of me is very, very sad. I have to say goodbye to people who have shopped with us for years. But I also know that the stress of the next year would have been too hard; I just couldn’t do it,” Fabrizio said.

Two other stores along Colorado Avenue also advertised their imminent closures on Monday.

The Buffalo Ridge Trading Post at 2430 W. Colorado Ave., and Out West a couple of doors down at 2426 W. Colorado Ave., are closing at the end of December.

Doug and Cindy Manyik opened The Buffalo Ridge Trading Post, which sells T-shirts, a variety of souvenirs and hot sauces, in 2004. On Monday afternoon, several customers came in to purchase goods for 70% off; all of them visited from out of state, including one customer who traveled all the way from Ontario, Canada.

Cindy Manyik’s family owns the building where the trading post is located, as well as the buildings on either side of it, she said. Her family owns and operates the Out West store, too, which sells a variety of Myra bags, wallets, jewelry, Colorado-made soaps and more.

After 20 years in business, the Manyiks are ready to retire and move out of Colorado, so they are closing the shops. Cindy’s family is also under contract to sell the buildings where the stores are located.

“It’s a little sad,” she said of the decision to close the stores, reminiscing on the happy times there.

A former employee met and fell in love with her husband at the trading post, for example. The Manyiks have even welcomed visits from American TV personality Duane Chapman, known better as Dog the Bounty Hunter, and in the early 2000s from Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was president of the Philippines from January 2001 to June 2010.

“But we will enjoy life and look forward to taking it easy for a little bit,” Cindy Manyik said.

The stores will close between Dec. 24 and 29.

Across the street, The Honey Cottage at 2429 W. Colorado Ave. had a notice pasted to its front window on Monday alerting residents that it will be moving locations — at some point.

Jorge’s Restaurant next door is closing down and the owner has sold the restaurant; the new owner will also use The Honey Cottage’s space, so the honey shop must move.

“We do not have any details yet and hours will (be) a little off as we are looking for a new location in between the hustle and bustle of the holidays,” the notice read.

Updates will be posted to The Honey Cottage’s social media, Google and elsewhere once the owners have more information about the shop’s move, they said in the notice.

The specialty store sells several kinds of honey, honey jams, a variety of soaps and skincare, and more.

The bulk beeswax the store purchases is all thoroughly vetted so owners Frank and Crystal Seeley know exactly how the bees were raised and what ingredients are in their products, Frank said.

The couple also makes the skincare products they sell, free of the alcohol and mineral oil found in many commercial body care products and which can be too harsh on the skin.

To watch for updates from The Honey Cottage, visit their website at thehoneycottage.com or its Facebook webpage, @TheHoneyCottage.