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Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts are constantly thinking about Christmas.
Sure, end-of-year sales are top of mind as two entrepreneurs in the consumer product space. But the holiday means even more for the twins and now co-CEOs…because it is literally their job to deliver Christmas magic to millions of families each year.
From their home base in Atlanta, Bell and Pitts run The LumiStella Company and its popular Elf on the Shelf brand. What started as a fun family tradition has grown into a “Christmas IP juggernaut” and a business with 120 full-time employees. Now, the twins work year round to build up an enterprise that is “as synonymous with Christmas as Santa Claus.”
FROM FAMILY TRADITION TO INTERNATIONAL BRAND
Going into business together in the consumer product or entertainment space was far from the original plan, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts told Hypepotumas. Pitts had built up a successful career as a QVC host and Bell was working as a middle school teacher. But well into adulthood, the two shared fond memories of a toy elf appearing around the holidays each year at their childhood home in Powder Springs, Georgia.
“When we were small, we had an elf of our own. The elf would “fly” back and forth to the North Pole and give Santa an update on us every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then every morning, we would wake up we race out of bed to go find [the elf],” Pitts told Hypepotamus, who would magically land in a different part of the house.
The elf served as the sisters’ “direct liaison with Santa Claus” and became a beloved part of each Christmas season.
Bell and her mother started writing a book based on their magical elf tradition. But the concept ran into a constant stream of rejections when they tried to find a traditional publisher. But Pitts, with her wealth of brand knowledge from QVS, saw an opportunity to build an entire business around the concept and create products that could be…
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