Portrait by Shawn LaChapelle
There is no shortage of ways to show love during the holiday season. After 37 years of owning G. Willikers Toys & Games, Linda Ambrosino knows this intimately—and knows that sharing the love in your heart often has nothing to do with buying a present.
“When I was little, there was a department store in the town that I grew up in,” she says. “It was just one of those things—no matter who you were or how much money you had—you went down there at Christmastime and looked at their windows,” she says. “It’s a memory that I cherish.”
Whether you live in the Saratoga community or make visiting the Spa City a holiday season tradition, you’ve probably experienced a moment of childlike wonder yourself, walking by G. Willikers’ holiday window display. Drawing from the preciousness of her own holiday window-shopping memories, Ambrosino—and her team, and her husband—plan the famous window display out as early as summertime, brainstorming what they want to bring to Broadway for the community. It’s no small feat: They never repeat a holiday window display.
“For our Christmas windows, we put very little product in them,” Ambrosino says. “They’re really there to celebrate the season, no matter if you’re Christian or Jewish or whatever. They’re just there to celebrate us all getting together and enjoying a little bit of beauty. You don’t have to come into the store and buy something.” She gives a light laugh. “Though we certainly like it if you do.” This year, expect G. Willikers’ holiday display to be up in time for the Victorian Streetwalk.
Outside of Saratoga, holiday window decorating isn’t necessarily the norm. Ambrosino recalls a passerby once exclaiming, nobody does windows anymore!“We in Saratoga are so lucky—I mean, look at Caroline + Main,” she says of her across-the-street neighbor that also goes all out on its window displays. “It’s this community. This community lends itself to us wanting to give back because they are so generous to us downtown. They come downtown, they make the effort. They don’t sit down in front of the computer all the time and order from Amazon.”
In the age of Amazon Prime, big box store Black Friday sales and video games, operating a brick-and-mortar toy store feels like a near-lost art—a small stand against the modern world of convenience and instant gratification. Ambrosino’s store is a bastion of community and connection. Whether it’s staff coming together as a creative force or sitting in meetings with toy reps (yes, Ambrosino still takes the time to meet with reps), those person-to-person relationships are the backbone of G. Willikers. The magic of it is strong enough to pull a person away from their phone screen.
“Yesterday I had three customers come in who I haven’t seen in a long time,” Ambrosino says. “Their kids are growing, their grandkids are growing. And yet they came back in and we still had a connection. I feel very lucky.”
For Ambrosino, the community relationships have sustained her nearly 40 years in business, but so too has her love and reverence for toys. “They are so important,” she says. “I thought that years ago, and I think they’re even more important today. Toys teach you everything. They teach you how to solve problems. They teach you how to play with others. They teach you how to play by yourself and figure things out.” This is why what you won’tfind in the shop is just as important as what you will.
“I don’t sell a lot of lights and cameras and noise and action, for instance, because the world is like that,” Ambrosino says. “Kids don’t need that.”
And as for this year’s window display? It’ll be filled with those things we all need more of, children and adults alike. More magic. More connection. More wonder.