While many retailers are shuttered on December 25, breathe books in Baltimore, Md., beckons revelers for a Jewish Christmas Party. A tradition since the store opened in 2004, some 30-40 people typically turn out for the event, about half of whom are Jewish. The soirée is popular with singles and also with those who don't have family in the area.
"Even though I'm crazy tired after working so many hours during the season, I see this as such an important thing to do," said proprietress Susan Weis-Bohlen. She got the idea for the Christmas Day fête from now-defunct Bibelot Books in Pikesville, Md., where she worked when she returned to the states after nearly a decade living in Israel.
"It was the first time I felt included on this day when everything is closed, except for Chinese restaurants and movies," Weis-Bohlen explained. "When I opened breathe books I decided I would do the same thing for the community." Attendees dine potluck-style on vegetarian Chinese food and other dishes, watch a film and listen to a local musician play.
The "December dilemma" is addressed in Joshua Eli Plaut's A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to be Jewish, a new seasonal favorite this year at breathe books. Another is Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame, edited by Franklin Foer and Marc Tracy, a book so popular it sold out and is currently on backorder. Weis-Bohlen stocked the essay collection, which highlights Jewish figures in the sports world, after hearing it reviewed on NPR.
A perennially bestselling holiday title at breathe books is David M. Bader's Haikus for Jews: For You, a Little Wisdom, which often inspires customers to read the rhymes aloud in the store. Also selling well are movie tie-in editions of Life of Pi and Cloud Atlas, along with cookbooks like The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen: Finding Harmony Through Food by Talya Lutzker. Among the top-selling sidelines are private-label organic spices, which Weis-Bohlen uses in the Ayurvedic cooking classes she teaches. (Ayurveda is the ancient Indian science of healing.)
After a 30% increase in sales Thanksgiving weekend, due in part to a robust Small Business Saturday, sales have since leveled off and are on par with last year's tallies. Drawing in shoppers throughout the season, many of them out-of-towners visiting breathe books for the first time, is the Hampden neighborhood's famous "Miracle on 34th Street," a feast for the eyes that has been written up numerous publications. Located not far from the store, the block of row houses is decked out in kitschy style with a hub-cap Christmas tree and other eclectic adornments.
Customers at breathe books can sample and purchase some of the items--truffles and macaroons, fair-trade coffee and tea--that soon will be available in the store's new café. Set to open in early February, the eatery will offer vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, raw and Ayurvedic fare. "I want to show the world how to be a healthy vegetarian--which means I want people to know that cheese, sweets, pizza and peanut butter do not a healthy vegetarian make," Weis-Bohlen said. "We will gently educate while feeding people amazing food."
After searching for a separate space to house a café, Weis-Bohlen decided to incorporate it into the store, which is situated in a renovated house and already has a kitchen, and got rid of some sidelines to make room. She has been working with Maryland resident Michael Shuman, the author of Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity, on how to marshal community resources to finance the venture. The goal of $150,000, raised through private investors, is expected to be reached by the end of the year.
A campaign went live on indiegogo.com last week to raise $15,000 for new kitchen equipment. The initiative is "a way of bringing our regular customers into the fundraising aspect of the café," said Weis-Bohlen. Depending on donation level, contributors receive something in return such as tea for two at the café and an in-home Ayurvedic cooking party for 15. Many publishers donated items for incentive, including signed copies of Zadie Smith's NW and a yoga mat autographed by Mariel Hemingway. For a donation of $12,500, a holiday shopper can give a travel buff on their list an amazing adventure: a spot on breathe books' two-week tour of sacred sites in Mongolia next August. --Shannon McKenna Schmidt