You may not realize it just yet, but this is the absolute perfect time of year to get a jump on your Christmas crafting and decorating.
If you wait until November or (gasp) even December to get going on these things, you’re most likely going to have to battle huge crowds, trudge through a few feet of snow, spend hours looking for a parking spot, pay hefty prices and deal with a picked-through selection. None of those problems exist in late July.
We went around Concord last week in search of as much Christmas stuff as we could find, and after a tough first day in which we didn’t find anything, we ended up being pleasantly surprised at the volume, quality and variety the city had to offer during the middle of summer.
Here’s a sampling of what we found (more online):