Rick’s Blog

It’s an exciting week for all of us here at Imaginatives — our fall shipment of the Christopher Pop-In-Kins Christmas elf doll and book have finally “popped in” to our warehouse! And this means that, for all of you who have already pre-ordered your own Christopher package, it will be on it’s way to you within the next week.

We’ve spent all year preparing for the release of the newly-illustrated version of the 25-year-old story and children’s toy. Our illustrator, Brian, agonized over every little detail of every page, truly pouring his heart and soul into the project. The Christopher Christmas elf doll looks just like the hand-made original, but now he is completely posable and comes with an even better toy safety guarantee. We’ve redesigned our website and added all kinds of features so that we can connect with the people who’ve taken Christopher into their hearts and homes. And we’ve taken Christopher to tradeshows all over the country so that he can pop in to even more homes this year. We’re thrilled to finally see the results of our efforts coming to fruition. Even more importantly, we’re thrilled that more families will get to meet Christopher this year.

There is a limited quantity of Christopher Pop-In-Kins packages available for this holiday season. If you haven’t already ordered yours, you’ll want to stop in to our online store soon to ensure availability for this Christmas season.

We’re thrilled that you can finally see the updated version of this old favorite. Be sure to come back and tell us what you think!

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Hi, I’m Diane Kuntzman. I have been a kindergarten teacher 31 years. For most of those years, I have heard of Christopher Pop-In-Kins and his tradition from my students. When my husband was asked to become the president of Christopher’s parent company, Imaginatives, I was able to tell him all about how my students enjoyed the Christmas elf “popping” into their homes.

Now I have seen another side of Christopher by attending my first tradeshow: ASTRA’s Marketplace and Academy. I would like to say first that the ASTRA event was well-organized and well-attended. Whenever we had a question or a concern, the ASTRA volunteers helped immediately. It made the show so much easier and such a success for us.

A surprise for me was how many toy store owners were once teachers. Not only did they understand their young buyers, but they also did their “homework” before arriving at our booth. When an interested buyer came to our booth, they had researched our available information through ASTRA, on our website, and in Toy Directory.

Toy Directory was certainly present at the event, they interviewed exhibitors all day, and my husband was one of the first. I had thought that most of those attending would have been from the region; but we met people from states as far apart as Maine and Alaska, and most states in between.

I must admit that the event was tiring, but I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to next year’s Academy.

Christopher had a lot of fun, too!

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Within the past week or so, we received a comment questioning the origin of Christopher Pop-In-Kins. Some of Christopher’s many fans wanted to help set the record straight about the Christmas elf’s beginnings.

One sent us this Canton Repository article from 1999 - read how Flora and Al created the original children’s Christmas elf that families nationwide fell in love with.

And, another sent a Canton Repository article from 2003. Check it out and see how Christopher Pop-in-Kins and Rick Johnson have changed over the past five years.

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Last week was busy for the Christopher team - not only did we attend the ASTRA toy convention (you can read all about that in our next post!), but we were also interviewed by Laurie Huffman for our local paper, The Alliance Review. To read all about Christopher in the paper, check out the article.

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My “theater life” began with a high school production. Thirty-five years and over 100 productions later, I have been a director, actor, playwright, and participant of almost every theater committee. In September 2007, I even started my own theater troupe.

My “real life” (meaning I get paid for doing something) has consisted of being an office manager, a theater manager, a costumed mascot, a picture framer, a banquet designer, and, currently, an insurance agent for long term care.

Then, an elf came into my “real life”.

I met Christopher Pop-In-Kins through my brother (and my employer) at the insurance agency.

I had never heard of this elf.  But most of my friends had!  And, for several, Christopher had been part of their family for many years.

I was invited to join the Imaginatives team and, soon, “Pop-In-Kins, the Musical” was in the works: Singing elves! A reindeer chorus!  And a tap dancing Santa!

The response has been amazing: elementary schools, community theaters.  Everyone wants to do the show.

Much of the time, my “theater life” and “real life” have remained separate.  Leave it to an elf to join the two!

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That would be me, Dave Kuntzman, president of an insurance agency and Imaginatives.

I own an insurance agency that helps individuals and small companies. The best part of the job is not only meeting new business owners, but also hearing about how their company came to be. Since 1985, I have heard thousands of stories about successful businesses and their unique products and services. I thought I had heard it all.

Then along came Rick Johnson.

Our first meeting was over breakfast; I spent about five minutes on the benefits of life insurance, and about 55 minutes hearing about a Christmas Elf named Christopher Pop-In-Kins. I offered a few observations; and we parted with the plan to get together again. I was intrigued with Rick’s business, but I did not expect the reaction I got when I arrived back at my office. My assistant, Debbie Burge, greeted me with “you met with Christopher Pop-In-Kins!” She then told me all about her family traditions with the Christmas Elf with great enthusiasm.

After a few more enthusiastic responses from others around me, I started to think of ways to help Rick. One of the benefits of two decades of insurance work is getting to know the right people for any situation and need; and I enjoy making those connections. A few more breakfast meetings took place, a few suggestions were given, and some connections were made. And then something occurred that I was not expecting: Rick asked if I would like to become a partner?! I was hooked, and I agreed somewhat tentatively; after all, I did have an agency, and my time was limited.

Since then, Christopher has slowly taken over my agency and my time. Debbie has taken on the extra responsibility of being one of Christopher’s stars at the tradeshows. My office manager now also doubles as Christopher’s bookkeeper.

Rick’s office (AKA the international headquarters of Imaginatives, Ltd. home of Christopher Pop-In-Kins) is now within my agency’s offices. And, the tradeshow booth stands proudly in the back of our office, allowing Christopher to greet my insurance clients.

My clients have accepted my extracurricular activity; they had previously accepted my involvement in the arts and various boards in the community. And, I know this might be a surprise for you, but they would rather talk about Christopher than life insurance! Christopher has taken over most of my time; and I find myself reminding my clients (and myself) that I still do insurance. But, this morning, I am deep in the details of planning for our next tradeshows. And I am having the time of my life.

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We just completed our first two trade show events of the year with Christopher Pop-In-Kins, our hide-and-seek Christmas elf. Wow… fun and exhausting!

The America’s Mart tradeshow in Atlanta gave us a great opportunity to start showing the world Christopher’s “new shoes.” As you may know, the Christopher Pop-In-Kins story and concept is unchanged but we’ve updated the look of the doll and the book. It’s the same great tradition and story that Flora started in 1985. What is new is the illustration style that Christopher is drawn in. I think I’m the third or fourth artist over the last twenty three years to illustrate Christopher Pop-In-Kins. During the process of putting my spin on Christopher, I kept a photo on my computer screen of Flora’s original hand sewn Christopher doll. I wanted to make sure that I kept the original creative spirit of Christopher’s character in my illustrations. The color schemes and basic design are all still there - that was very important to me personally.

So while we were in Atlanta I was excited and a little nervous to see what the reaction would be from all of the store owners shopping for this year’s Christmas items. Long story short - the reaction was incredible! If we had a nickel every time someone said “Oh my gosh, this elf is so cute!” we would be very well off! So to every one in Atlanta and your kind words, THANK YOU!

In Atlanta, our team consisted of myself, my wife Missy, Imaginatives CEO Rick Johnson, Bob Holliday, Imaginatives president Dave Kuntzman, and Debbie Burge. Besides Christopher himself, Debbie and Missy stole the show! It was so neat to see two people step into a role the way they did. Missy is a first grade teacher and Debbie is an executive assistant at Dave Kuntzman’s agency. So hosting a trade show booth is something they have never done before - but you would have never known it. I had to keep telling them how impressed I was with them. I remember Debbie saying “Well, it’s easy because Christopher is just so darn cute!”. (ding! nickel…)

We made some wonderful contacts and friends while we were in Atlanta. Folks from all over the country. From Florida to Michigan - and Massachusetts to California. So many wonderful people stopping by to see what our little elf was all about. Thank you all for your kind words and compliments!

The weekend following Atlanta we headed to Columbus, Ohio. Our humble little headquarters is based in Alliance, Ohio - about a two hour drive northeast of Columbus. So yes, we are Buckeyes and it was nice to be in our own backyard! Just like the week before in Atlanta, folks were quite impressed with little Christopher. It really makes me feel great to see people enjoy something I’ve helped with.

The cool thing for me in Columbus was meeting up with many people from Ohio that knew Christopher way before I did. I was fortunate enough to chat with a very nice couple from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. They had purchased Christopher for their store many years ago from Flora Johnson herself. They had wonderful things to say about Christopher’s new shoes and it was truly exciting to see their passion.

Looking forward, we have tradeshows planned for the ASTRA Convention June 23-24 at the MGM Grand in Mashantucket, Connecticut as well as the Atlanta Gift Mart, July 11-15 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Maybe we’ll see you there!

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First of all, I just want to say thank you so much for visiting our new Imaginatives website. Many talented folks were involved in making sure it not only functions at a world-class level, but looks world class too.

Big news of course is the unveiling of our new version of the Christopher Pop-In-Kins Christmas elf doll and book!

Two years in the making and countless hours spent in making sure everything was done just right, we think we’ve come up with a package that is just unbeatable. Everyone just smiles when they see Christopher for the first time, and I know that my mom, Christopher’s creator, is smiling too.

You know, this has been quite a journey for me. Mom started Imaginatives back in 1985, and here it is March of 2008 and her dream is still very much alive. Mom’s dream was for every child who believes in Santa to experience the magic of Christmas with their very own visit from Christopher. We are even closer to making that dream a reality!

Before I forget, we’re going to  the America’s Mart tradeshow in Atlanta this week. If you are attending the show, we’d love to meet you! Brian Bradway, our illustrator, will be with us signing some really cool pencil illustrations that he did in the early stages of the project. You won’t want to miss it.

Well, its Tuesday, March 4th and my trip to Atlanta in the morning will be made more exciting by an ice storm that is moving into the area. It should be an interesting trip!

Thank you so much for visiting us.

Wishing all of you the merriest!

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My name is Brian Bradway and I’m the illustrator for Christopher Pop-In-Kins.

First of all, to everyone who has invited Christopher into your homes over the past 20 something years, I’m really hoping you enjoy the next step we are taking here. A little over a year ago Rick and the Imaginatives team asked me to help take Christopher to the next level. I have to say, as excited as I was to take on this project I was also pretty dang scared! Christopher Pop-In-Kins is such a well-loved tradition and I hoped I wasn’t screwing something up. But so far the response has been over-the-top positive! So if you like what you see - thank you. If you don’t - it was all Rick’s idea! Just kidding. ; )

And to everyone new to the Christopher Pop-In-Kins tradition, welcome! As a parent myself, I have seen what the presence of this little elf can do. If Christopher was found hiding in the kitchen, my youngest seemed compelled to clean the dinner table off without being asked. If Christopher was in the living room, pillows were fluffed and toys were picked up. I’m starting to think a year-round elf may be a very good idea… My niece has also found that if she sets out broken toys and asks Christopher nicely, he fixes them by the next day. This is a feature that my brother-in-law LOVES!

Children just love this little guy and I’m sure you’ll have wonderful stories to share in no time as well. Can’t wait to hear them!

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