Hixson's in Lakewood, Keeper of Cleveland Christmas Memorabilia, Auctioning Off Its Collection of Tens of Thousands of Decorations

A 16-foot-tall Raggedy Ann doll hangs in the front window of Hixson’s Flower Barn in Lakewood. By the end of the July, many of the antiques and ornaments the shop grew to be known for will be auctioned off. Credit: Mark Oprea

You can see it soon after Ralphie May tumbles down the Halle’s slide in A Christmas Story. It’s got red hair and a red nose, a country-blue dress and striped stockings.

For decades that doll, a 16-foot-tall Raggedy Ann figure, has been hanging out in the front window of Hixson’s Flower Barn, Lakewood’s oldest shop selling Christmas antiques and tens of thousands of holiday ornaments.

That era is coming to an end.

On July 19, Hixson’s will be auctioning off a humongous trove of items that it’s become known for since the Eisenhower era—stained glass windows, Nativity scene sets, Fabergé eggs, Tiffany-style chandeliers, 40 Christmas trees and 25,000 ornaments. (And that Raggedy Ann doll in the window.)

The auction, run by Rachel Davis Fine Arts, comes as Hixson’s owner, Matthias Burke, a full-time firefighter who acquired the business in 2023, has decided to sell the location and downsize. Burke acquired the business after its founder, Bill Hixson, died two years ago, four days after Christmas, at the age of 93.

“This has always been a magical place,” Burke said on Wednesday, sitting near a wooden staircase for sale laden with vintage puppet dolls. “You go in, it’s like stepping back in time. It’s unique. It’s something that you don’t see anywhere else, especially when you’re a kid.”

Burke would know. At 14, he began a work study program with Hixson, then known as a world-renowned floral designer who taught frequently in Japan and France. A mentorship formed around the art of ornamentation, and Burke’s been involved in the business since.

He bought into Hixson’s as part owner in 2013. By then, Hixson had fashioned Christmastime displays for five presidential administrations—from Bush to Obama—and regularly received letters from first ladies praising his own craftwork.

“Bill, I’ll be decorating our tree with your ornaments,” Laura Bush wrote Hixson one Christmas. “Thinking of you. Thank you.”

Along with designing custom ornaments—from pickles to frogs—Hixson was a storied collector of the odd and the sentimental. He would often return from teaching summer courses in Japan with kimono figures. He had an eye for Fabergé-style eggs and German pyramids.

“That’s what I loved about Bill,” Katherine Isenhart, a spokesperson for the auction, said. “He went to D.C. He went to Japan. But he didn’t live in D.C. or Japan—you know, he was a Clevelander.”

Matthias Burke, 45, has owned Hixson’s since its founder, Bill Hixson, passed away in 2023 at the age of 93. He wants to downsize and relocate the store’s remaining wares elsewhere. Credit: Mark Oprea

About three dozen automated window figures, those that used to hang around and above Christmas shoppers at Halle’s downtown, will be auctioned off later this month. Credit: Mark Oprea

By the time Halle’s had vacated Downtown Cleveland in the late 1980s, and taking the glitz and ritual of Christmas shopping with it, Hixson had amassed quite a bit of collectibles at his shop on Detroit Avenue.

Part of that is roughly three dozen automated window figures that used to adorn Halle’s window displays, or glide around and dance above its jewelry and perfume counters. The same goes for Halle’s old Mr. Jingeling, the so-called Keeper of the Keys that wowed shoppers on the store’s seventh floor.

“You just don’t see displays like this anymore,” Davis said, recalling Halle’s heyday. “Certainly not the quality. It’s the money—it takes money to have these types of dolls made and maintained.”

On Wednesday, as Davis did inventory on an untold number of ornaments, many made by Hixson himself, Burke walked the store, which is labyrinthine and dense, to survey what will mostly be sold and gone by the end of the month.

Burke said the goal is to leverage money made from the auction to transfer the Hixson name to a smaller retail space somewhere in Northeast Ohio, or continue by selling at different pop-up shops come Christmas market season.

A mixed bag of feeling seemed to come over Burke as he walked around, as he showed off the Ukrainian eggs, pointed at photos of Hixson with George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton, or demonstrated how a German pyramid works. (By lightning small candles that move its wooden propellors.)

“I always watch people come in and hear about all the memories they’ve made here,” Burke said. “Generation after generation coming through the store, seeing all this stuff. People aren’t collecting much anymore. But they love to see and remember things.”

Burke smiled. “It reminds me of one of Bill’s famous lines,” he said. “‘We don’t sell things here. We sell memories.’”