Little Popcorn Store, local artist partner for fast-selling Christmas ornament

WHEATON – A local artist and a longtime downtown business have partnered to create a limited, but popular, Christmas ornament this holiday season.

The Little Popcorn Store is a 4-foot-wide shop at 111 1/4 Front St. that pops more than 8 tons of fresh popcorn each year over an ancient gas stove and offers a wall of candy priced by the piece.

It is also the subject of the new ornament, designed by Wheaton photographer Christopher Arndt. More than 1,000 of the 1,500 ornaments, featuring the awning and logo of the tiny store, have already sold.

"I'm really grateful," said shop owner Bill Wakefield. "And humbled. It has really meant a lot to me that so many people cared about this place."

Arndt called the style of the ornament "photo painting" – a technique he uses to give a photograph the aesthetic of an oil painting. He first sold his work in Door County, Wis., creating a series of images, then turned his attention to Wheaton and the Chicago area.

For one project, he focused on several major Wheaton landmarks, including Wheaton College, the public library and the former DuPage County Courthouse building.

Arndt said when he posted his pictures on Facebook, the rendering of the Little Popcorn Store got the most attention.

"So I asked, 'What's the big deal about this popcorn shop?'" he said. "I've been in Wheaton for 15 years, but was an adult when we came here. So I thought it was just some store in Wheaton."

But when he looked closer at the community reactions, he realized the image represented something special to many local residents.

"The popcorn shop triggered an emotional response from their childhood and stirred up all those Norman Rockwell feelings," he said.

Arndt and Wakefield said it only took them three days to sell two-thirds of the ornaments. Some were preordered and others purchased in-store. Though sales have slowed as online orders have been filled, people still come into the shop asking about the ornament, which has been shipped as far away as Kenya, the pair said.

Though they haven't decided whether it will be an annual, one-time or constant item in the store, Arndt and Wakefield know that once the ornament is sold out this year, it's gone.

Wakefield credited the shop's long history in Wheaton – it opened in 1921 – with the ornament's popularity.

"It means a lot to a lot of people here," he said. "We have lots of people who come in with their kids, or people who used to be kids come back as adults. I think this place is special."

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Buy the ornament

To view or purchase the Little Popcorn Store ornament, visit www.littlepopcornstore.com.