Jake Suderman remembers the time one of his young customers thought he really might be you-know-who.
“She was maybe two years old, and she kept walking by the counter and looking up at me,” he recalls. “All of a sudden she says ‘are you Santa Claus?’”
No, he was not, he politely told her. She thought for a moment but was undeterred.
“Then she asked me ‘can I give you my Christmas list?’ She told me everything she wanted for Christmas.”
It’s the kind of heartwarming moment Suderman and his wife Helen regularly enjoy as their young — and young-at-heart — customers visit their store.
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Their Village Toy Shop is a little gem of a general store, its shelves packed with games, toys, puzzles, and dolls. It’s located on their yardsite across from the school in the village south of Winkler.
Don’t come looking for mass-market, faddish stuff to buy here though. The Sudermans stock only unique, timeless toys like musical jack-in-the-boxes, wooden toys, and games we all remember playing.
“A lot of people compare us to Toad Hall (Toys),” says Jake, referring to the Winnipeg-based independent toy retailer.
They never set out to own a store though. This all began simply searching for good-quality toys for their own little boy, explain Jake and his wife Helen. The couple also have three married children, and grandchildren.
“It wasn’t a business idea. It was a hobby,” says Jake. “We were looking for toys for our little boy who was two at the time.”
He started ordering from toy suppliers, eventually purchasing larger volumes and selling at craft shows. Customers loved what they had for sale and wanted more. For Jake, a true Santa at heart and collector of retro and vintage toys, it was a perfect fit.
“Someone said to me just the other day, ‘it must be awfully hard to know what kind of product to buy.’” he says, pointing and shooting a Lunar Launcher across the store. (A little flying saucer spins over head.)
“I said, well, not really. I just buy stuff I know I like to play with. At my age I still like toys. It’s all stuff that I used to play with.”
“Or you wanted,” Helen teases.
Popular outing
This is their third Christmas selling at the Village Toy Shop, with its tiny porch and pressed tin ceiling. Jake was building a shed a couple of years ago when Helen suggested he tweak the design and create the outlet to sell their toy inventory. By then they had customers coming to make purchases out of their garage.
“I still don’t have a shed,” Jake says good-naturedly. But he doesn’t have time to tinker in one anyway.
The Village Toy Shop is a very busy place, and not only at Christmas. Customers come from all over southern Manitoba and beyond to browse and buy, say the couple. A visit to their store has become a popular outing for families.
“That’s why we’re busy all summer too,” adds Helen.
It’s the very best kind of busy-ness. The toys stocked at the Village Toy Shop are the kind that have lasted as long as people’s memories playing with them. Grown ups regularly exclaim “I remember this,” say the couple.
These are toys that will keep right on passing the test of time too. Good quality is the hallmark of everything they carry, says Jake. These toys are built to last.
“We put our toys through the paces,” he said. “They won’t wreck right away.”
Good quality
Good quality toys are important for other reasons, says Helen. It’s dismaying to see so many poorly made toys quickly broken and then thrown out.
“If children have better toys, they learn to value their toys,” she says. “These are toys that will be there not just for today. They’ll be something to give to their own kids somewhere down the road.”
There’s something else about a timeless toy too; they remind us all of how we used to play. Enjoyment of play should last a lifetime too, says Helen.
“The biggest thing is not to throw that part of your life away too quickly,” she says. “We grow up quick enough.”
Jake, raised in a large family in Chortitz, says he often thinks of his mom, in German, telling him and his siblings to ‘go play, go play.”
“I guess I never stopped,” he says with a smile.
More information about the Village Toy Shop including hours of operation can be found on Facebook.
