Quirky downtown store served as a home for the community

Whether you have relatives visiting who need souvenir T-shirts or you want to buy some chattering teeth, a yo-yo and a hand buzzer to cheer up a friend, Crystal Winters has been the place to go in Whitefish since 1979.

After running the store for 35 years, the founder, Craig Drynan, sold the business to Bree James in 2014. Due, in large part, to the difficulty in finding employees, the store will close later this month. Many in the community feel a connection to the store and Drynan says that same community helped him raise his daughter.

Drynan, a skilled stained glass artist, had space on Central Avenue in the Emporium building, selling his works and block-printed postcards made by his sister. When he was able, he bought the building across the street and started Crystal Winters — a store unlike any other.

“I wanted it to assault your senses with smells and extra color and shiny things and music and windchimes, that sort of thing. And movement,” Drynan said. “A lot of people would come in and say, ‘Oh what a great tourist store’ and I would always say, ‘thank you, it’s not a tourist store, it's a local store.’”

Crystal Winters does provide sensory overload. Upon entering the store, you may have to duck to avoid windchimes, crystals and flags hanging from above. Glass baubles, metal mobiles and streamers reflect light and shelves are over-burdened with coasters, cards, magnets and toys.

For many, the signature sensory feature of the store is the smell. The variety of incense for sale gives the shop its unmistakable scent, even though none of them are burned there.

Glo Caudillo, a former employee of Crystal Winters, related a story about a woman who purchased a hoodie to send to her grandson who lived out of state. When he received the gift he called and said, “Grandma, when I opened that present, it smelled like Crystal Winters.”

WHEN DRYNAN opened the store, he was a single parent, trying to figure out a way to make a living while being able to watch his daughter, Skye. In order to give her somewhere to go after school he made some modifications to the space which, most recently, had been a print shop.

“In the back, I put in a living area with a couple couches, a TV, a stove and refrigerator and the print shop moved out so we had more space. The kids would come back and play and they’d use the darkroom to use all the glow-in-the-dark stars and dinosaurs and things like that,” Drynan recalled. “It was a fun place for the kids to be.”

Throughout their childhoods, Skye and Bree James, the latest owner of Crystal Winters, played together in and out of the store. A story retold by many is when they were allowed to stand in the storefront window and be living mannequins. The two have stayed close over the years.

“Oh my gosh, she’s still my best friend,” raved Skye.

The two are such good friends that they will work together on Skye’s pop-up fashion store called “House of Skye” which will open in the same location in mid-December and feature her original designs. The store will likely stay open until spring.

WHILE DOING his best to look after his own child, Drynan ended up caring for many of the community’s children.

“When Rubik’s Cubes were popular in the early ’80s, they'd come in and have contests and I'd give them a Rubik's Cube for their birthday, that sort of thing,” he said.

Many kids who did not have safe home situations found Crystal Winters as a safe place to hang out.

“A dozen times or more, adults come in and they say, we used to come to Crystal Winters after school because you were always so nice to us and it was the only place I felt safe,” Drynan said. “Seriously, it made me cry multiple times when they'd come in and tell me how much they appreciated it.”

Others, who needed a job, found not only employment with Drynan, but they were taught to have a work ethic and to be forthright and honest.

Everyone was held to the same standard when it came to being an employee. Skye grew up working in the store and Drynan said he had to fire her once because, despite two warnings, she continued to play music in the store that her father had deemed inappropriate.

Since Skye grew up in downtown Whitefish, she was friends with Larry Hadley, the barber, and did crafts with Linda Gustafson in her clothing store called Mode O Day. She learned to cook from Carleen and Heather at the Kitchen Connection and she’d visit the Hair Hut. Thus, when her dad fired her, Skye had three other job offers within minutes.

“I think about how the community itself was so instrumental in raising my daughter,” said Drynan. “All those places had a lot to do with raising my daughter to be who she is.

FORMER EMPLOYEES, Caudillo and Jess Owen, describe Drynan as one of the nicest bosses and made note of his generous spirit. They are also impressed by the number of former employees who have gone on to succeed in a wide range of challenging careers, including Owen herself, who is an accomplished author.

“Crystal Winters was my first real job and I worked off and on there for 20 years,” recalls Owen. “The whimsical atmosphere fit my personality and I saw parents bring in kids and talk about coming when they were kids. Mostly, it was because Crystal Winters was part of being home and Craig is like family.”

Drynan remembers how Owen grew up during her time working at the store and related that it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

“When Jess (Owen) started she didn’t know how to make change. She turned into the best employee I ever had. She learned a work ethic. She was always kind of slow doing things and I finally almost felt like kicking her in the butt,” Drynan said. “She just is an absolutely amazing person and has done so many great things with her life. There's so many like that, I feel honored to have known them.”

Owen remembers that day and said she had to make a choice between quitting or doing better, and she chose to do better. She credits Drynan with helping her become better at taking initiative. Being part of the Crystal Winters story is something she cherishes.

“I loved that Bree (James) took over as part of the family nature of the store and I love how, just as the store made an impression on anyone who walked through the door, so did Craig’s generosity, humor and kindness through the years,” Owen said.

The Whitefish community will miss the sights, sounds and smells of Crystal Winters. It will miss having a place to buy a Montana T-shirt or a refrigerator magnet or a coffee mug, but mainly it will miss the quirky gift shop that gave several in the community far more than trinkets.

“I think we've had a real impact on a lot of young women that learned a work ethic working for Crystal Winters and they became family. We had a lot of fun together and a lot of growth. I still get Christmas cards and birthday cards from a lot of them and they keep in contact,” Drynan said.

“That’s one legacy I have. I think maybe being a single parent, I loved all these kids and they gave me as much as I gave them,” he added. “It isn’t about me, it's more about the community and what a fantastic place it has always been.”