West – Traversing Texas during the holidays can sometimes be a little hectic and if you’re making your way down Interstate 35 during the Christmas rush, it can be hard to stay on Santa’s nice list. But there is an oasis on I35 off of exit 353 that we know well, and that’s Slovacek’s. “It’s been 11 years since we opened up here in West and really the people have been great and the people up and down the highways have been great and we are doing our best to try to make them happy,” said Tim Rabroker.
Tim took over what was a small sausage company in Snook back in 1995 and made it into a massive Texas brand with Slovacek Sausage being found all over the state. In 2013, they expanded with Slovecek’s in West and over the years, it’s become the premiere place to stop on I-35. But one thing they noticed was people that are hungry for a snack are also hungry to shop. “We started over in the main store and then we had a tent hooked up to it, and then we decided to build a warehouse here and it ended up being a Christmas store,” said Tim.
Now Slovacek’s has a massive Christmas depot that’s almost as big as their main store. Tim is like a kid in a candy store at his Christmas shop that has so much stuff, but there’s just one problem. “Organization is not my strong point,” said Tim.
Fortunately, Tim has a few helpers, just like Santa, and Logan Maas is one of them. “You get every dose of Christmas that you need, plus a lot morel,” said Logan.
“Now see, I miss this decorator,” said Tim. “This is Logan. She’s at our main store at our sausage company in Snook, but I’m so glad she’s here today.”
Logan is one of the few folks who can actually keep up with Tim because trust me, he doesn’t like to sit still. “Walk fast, talk fast,” said Logan. “I think I might be able to beat him on the talking fast, which I don’t think anybody… I will say I might take the cake on that one. I love Tim. His vision is, I mean, you can’t compare to this. Who can think of stuff like this?”
“We throw stuff in the air,” said Tim. “It’s moving, it’s flying. It makes it fun. You’ve never seen it decorated the way we decorate it. Sometimes we really hit the nail on the head and you got to see it to believe it. Right?”
Much of the warehouse is ordained with ornaments, featuring objects that you never knew could be made festive. “So over here, these are some of my favorite ornaments,” said Logan. “They have something for absolutely everybody no matter what. Literally the butter stick is one of my personal favorites. My mom loves a good baked dish with butter, so she has one of those on her Christmas tree too. Our cocktails, I also have a little cocktail tree at my house at the bar, because working here will do that to you. We have all kinds of stuff. Literally whatever kind of vibe you’re going for, we have it. We have every dog, animal, anything you could imagine here. If you’re a bird person, we’ve got probably whatever bird you enjoy.”
With such a fragile inventory, it’s no surprise that accidents tend to happen from time to time. “Last night I had a customer, she had dropped a little dachshund and it was the last one of them and she said, ‘Do you have another? I’m so sorry,’” said Logan. “I said, ‘Look, if we count how many we broke, we’d be the ones that break into most of them.’ I have dropped six or seven in one day, so it’s okay. We don’t care. It’s all in the fun of it. Make them feel better and go on your way.”
All of these extraordinary ornaments are displayed on trees throughout the shop, and there’s no telling how many have been decorated for the holiday. “I couldn’t even give you a guess,” said Logan. “Honestly. We got to have like 50. Who would think to put this together, other than Tim Rabroker and his vision for all things Christmas? He has a crazy vision. Our crew here also does a bunch of the decorating, but a lot of the vision, anything up high most of us can’t see at the same sight line as Tim. I think he’s like 6’5, 6’6 maybe. So anytime you need a ladder, you can generally start with him and if we have to go with the ladder, we can do that too. But now this is all his vision. It’s absolutely wonderful and quirky and very, very cool.”
Despite all the crazy Christmas displays and doodads, there’s one thing Slovacek’s is serious about when it comes to Christmas. “The first things we put out are the Nativity, because Jesus is the reason and we stick to that,” said Tim. “And sometimes it gets away a little bit, but it shouldn’t. And so we always keep that at that center.”
“No matter what kind of decor you have, whatever your Christmas motif is, we have you covered,” said Logan. “If you don’t know what your Christmas motif needs to be, we have you covered.”