Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Fisher.
Tamara, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Christmas was always a special part of my childhood and faith. The world seems to be a better version of itself during this time of year, and my family was no exception… everyone was able to get along and come together for Christmas traditions. Decorating the Christmas Tree as a family was the beginning of the Christmas season and meant quality time had arrived. My parents loved Christmas decorations and saw them as a way to create a magical experience for the family. The grand finale was a Christmas morning filled with Santa’s gifts, Christmas music, cocoa, and a visit to Grandma’s to see extended family. The Christmas Tree always seems to be a gathering point for these special moments, and these memories still bring me joy today.
Years later, I learned just how difficult being Wife, Mother of five children, Designer, Shopper, Event Planner, and honorary Mrs. Claus can be. I spent a disproportionate amount of time shopping for Christmas Tree decorations to create the beautiful tree I envisioned. While my joy for the season would fuel me through the holiday frenzy, I felt like there had to be a better way to create a beautiful home for the holidays -and- enjoy it. I began researching options to have a beautiful tree without requiring many hours to design, locate, and acquire decorations. I found many catalogs showcasing a beautiful tree with beautiful decorations, only to find the total cost was thousands of dollars for one tree. I decided to design beautiful Christmas Crates with everything an honorary Mrs. Claus would need to decorate from top to trunk.
The Rockwall Christmas Company is the result of that aspiration. Over the last ten months, our family has worked endlessly to bring this vision to life. We have accomplished so much, including designing the themes, sourcing manufacturers, building a warehouse (barn) behind our home, designing packaging, building the website, photography, copywriting, and creating an assembly line to complete our Christmas Crates. Everyone in the family, many friends, and our local community has helped launch the company. We conducted a successful pre-order campaign featuring four themes and shipped all orders well before Thanksgiving. We are now shipping orders within 24 hours. I am very grateful for our many customers and their enthusiastic support. I am so proud of our little company and even prouder of the impact it is having on families all over the country.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I wish I could say it’s been a seamless process but launching a product company is hard. We initially targeted twelve Christmas Crate themes which would have resulted in over one-hundred, eighty unique products to design and source. After a market study, we pared down to our four most popular themes: Jingle Bells, White Christmas, O’Christmas Tree, and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas. Four themes still meant we had to source manufacturers for over sixty unique products. After an extensive search, we partnered with ten manufacturers to produce the products we needed for our Christmas Crates. This involved factory inspections, product specifications, contracts, and final QA inspections before being shipped to us.
We soon found Christmas products are not immune to the pandemic impacts on raw material price increases, shortages, and delays. We had to work closely with our manufacturers to address multiple challenges without sacrificing quality. We briefly celebrated the completion of manufacturing and were immediately faced with freight challenges. While we originally set out to work with local manufacturers only, we discovered very few local options. This meant we had to source manufactures from USA, Mexico, Philippines, and China. Over the last year, ocean freight has experienced enormous cost increases. In our experience, the current freight cost is greater than ten times the normal cost assuming you are lucky enough to get space on a container ship in the first place. When the products did arrive at our warehouse, it was all hands-on deck.
The entire family worked to receive products, check quantity and quality, sort, and prepare for Christmas Crate assembly. Twelve-hour days were the norm, and it was often more. We would encounter a challenge, then solve the challenge… rinse and repeat until we had every order out the door.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a family-owned and operated business in Rockwall, Texas, we want to share our passion for all things Christmas with other families. We are driven by our belief in the importance of quality time and that everyone deserves a beautiful holiday season. We set out to find a way to help families set the stage for a wonderful Christmas season to create lasting memories.
And so, the idea for our signature Christmas Crates was born. With a focus on style and quality, we created a set of themed crates that would contain everything a family would need to deck out their Christmas trees, from top to trunk. Each theme is inspired by a Christmas Carol and contains over one-hundred ornaments to decorate a beautiful Christmas Tree. After all, the tree is where everyone gathers together in the glow of twinkle lights to sip hot chocolate and nibble on gingerbread, to read Christmas stories and sing carols, to watch favorite classic holiday movies, and most of all, to wake up to on Christmas morning to open presents and observe the joy of this once-a-year holiday.
With this vision in mind, we built our business around specializing in high-quality Christmas decorations, backed by an unwavering commitment to customer care and providing valuable and useful tools that make the holiday season merry and bright (and hassle-free). We look forward to helping you create magic in your home this holiday season, with charming, beautifully crafted Christmas décor items delivered right to your door, from our family to yours.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
We have created everything for our company, including the website, social media, designs, etc., on our own. We handle every aspect of the company, including customer support, shipping, packaging, designing, and more. It’s a lot to tackle, but it’s more fun when working with family!
Contact Info:
- Email: tamara.fisher@rockwallchristmasco.com
- Website: https://www.rockwallchristmasco.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/rockwallchristmasco
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/RockwallChristmasCompany
