About Arreola Designs, Christmas Ornaments from Poland

Childhood memories help fuel a passion for collecting and the start of a new company.

After bringing back beautiful glass ornaments from Poland, Ewa and fiance Luis were asked by friends to buy some for them too! It lead to the start up of their business in 2000 after Ewa decided to quit her job at Cisco Systems as an applications engineer. "I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but I got bored very quickly. This was a perfect fit."

Originally the company would buy and import from various manufacturers in Poland. But according to Ewa "we quickly realized that the only way to go is to have our own, unique designs". And since she has always been involved in art, it was exciting to get into the new media of ornament design.

"Today 80% of our selections are my designs. Eventually we will only be carrying our own designs. Custom ornaments are also a large part of our business, we've done pieces for many wineries in California, as well as some casinos. We've also done custom designs for companies such as the Trump Tower Stores and Ritz Carlton."

Ornaments retail for $7 - $80 with most of the pieces in the range of $18 - $37.

Vacation Leads to Political Asylum
I left Poland in 1981 on a vacation to visit my aunt and uncle in California, but two weeks after I arrived Poland declared marshal law. That meant the borders were sealed in both directions and I could not go back home for over a year. My twin sister went to my classes at the university so that I would not lose my placement, but after a few months it became obvious that I had to come up with another plan.

I applied for political asylum, put my studies at the university in Poland on hold and enrolled in English as a second language classes. With the help of my aunt and uncle I received a work permit and started working, as well as continuing my education at De Anza College. I previously studied drafting in Poland and decided it would be a good field here, but since Poland uses the metric system, I had to learn the English system.

Within a year I knew that I liked it here better and that I would build a new life in California. I stared working as a drafter and continued my education, eventually working at Cisco Systems.

Today I go to Poland at least once a year to visit family and friends. I also spend two weeks during each visit to work with vendors on our new designs.

Decorating at Christmas
It's quite hectic at our home since it's one of our busiest times as we are finishing up design, putting together new catalogs and getting ready for shows. I am ashamed to admit that for the first three years we did not even put up a Christmas tree. We just didn't have the time. When our daughter was born in 2002, we decided we must put in the effort and do the decorating of the tree for us and our kids!

Every year we decorate four trees, one is each kid's room, one in the family room and one in the living room front window. We do color themes on our trees. Last year was lavender and gold in the living room, with red and gold in the the family room. The kids use their favorite ornaments on the trees in their room.

We also started a tradition of giving special Christmas ornaments as gifts to our friends and family, now they all wait anxiously to see what new ornaments will be added to their trees.