Above you see PopCult’s 2025 Holiday Video that brings you sights from a visit we made last month to Kraynak’s Santa’s Christmasland in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.

This is the first post of our “12 Posts of Christmas” this year, where the idea is that we will bring you on Holiday post every day to help get you into the proper mood to enjoy the Christmas season (or whatever particular Yuletide celebration you wish).  You can expect videos, photo essays, word essays and flashbacks to previous years, all leading up to the big day.

Kryanak’s is a Western Pennsylvania institution, located roughly an hour Northwest of Pittsburgh. For most of the year it’s a a huge store filled with floral supplies, seasonal items and toys and general retail items of a particularly cool nature. At Christmas and Easter, a 300 foot long corridor on the side of the building is transformed into a holiday wonderland, filled with lights, trees, decorations and animatronics. You can visit Santa’s Christmasland until December 31.

Let me quote from their website:

Kraynak’s was established 1949 in Hermitage, Pa. There are three divisions of the Kraynak business. The first is the main retail store which is the home of Santa’s Christmasland and Easter Bunny Lane. These walk through displays have become a tradition for many families. This location sells Christmas and Easter decorations, toys, gifts, potted plants from the greenhouse and fresh cut flowers from the floral department.

The second division is the Kraynak’s Lawn and Garden center, located 1000ft behind the original store. At this location you may purchase trees, shrubs, garden supplies, and outdoor furniture.

The third division comprises of six nurseries where trees and shrubs are grown for retail and wholesale sales.

Kraynak’s is a family owned business that promotes fair pricing and quality products. Many families over the years have made Kraynak’s their store for all seasons.

That humble description does not do justice to the elaborate psychotronic and delightfully bizarre holiday displays, which are fully dismantled each year, with completely-new attractions designed and built the next year.  To be honest, our video just scratches the surface of how wild and exciting the Christmas display is. We showed up on a Sunday in November, and if you can go on a weekday, that is probably a much wiser choice. The place was packed, with the line snaking its way through their impressive toy department.

You can see videos of their displays from this year and many previous years HERE.

I’m pretty sure we’re going to be going back in the future. They have a pretty huge toy department, plus a selection of regional candy and some interesting sodas, and to be honest, we were caught off-guard by the size and scope when we went, and didn’t really get enough time to soak it all in. Plus ,I’m really curious about what the store is like in the off-season.

The music you hear in the background is from The December People. The December People is a group of veteran musicians led by Robert Berry, who perform traditional holiday tunes in the styles of Progressive and Classic Rock bands. I’ve been a big fan of Robert Berry since he teamed with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in the group, 3, back in the 1980s, and he’s still making great music, currently with his band, Six by Six.

And if you want to buy some of his music, merch and related stuff, go HERE.

The music I chose for this video is from the first December People album, and it’s “The Carol of the Bells,” performed in the style of one of my favorite bands, YES.

This is our quick and sloppy, shot on the phone,  non-monetized, holiday music video.  In the next week we’ll be posting a large photo essay from our visit. You can expect more Christmas-y stuff every day for the next eleven days, here in PopCult.