Put a bow on that Christmas car

Every year about this time, automakers produce television commercials suggesting how wonderful it would be to get up Christmas morning and find in your driveway a car parked beneath a big red bow.

Turns out that those big red bows aren’t just a figment of some advertising agency’s commercial production. The Car Bow Store is based in Warminster, Pennsylvania, and sells 25,000 giant bows every year.

“We have had customers tell us that the recipients are more excited about the bow than the car itself,” said Michael Rudolph (yes, as in the red-nosed reindeer), president of the family-owned business.

Rudolph said 60 percent of company sales are to dealerships looking for a way to enhance the appeal of their showrooms during the holiday season.

“December is the busiest month for new car sales,” he said. “Car dealers use the bows to decorate their showrooms for the holiday season and often include a bow to close the deal.”

The Car Bow Store is a part of MBR Marketing, which sells banners, signs, body-shop supplies and other equipment to dealerships.

When it was launched in 2009, “We never thought that car bows could be a business,” Rudolph admitted. “We started with one product, which has now developed into a substantial manufacturing business with many different colors and styles of bows,” produced in an 11,000-square-foot plant.

A 30-inch bow, which nearly spans the hood of a typical car, costs less than $40 and can be attached with either a non-scratch magnet or suction cup. They are available in nearly a dozen colors, in a combination of two colors or even in red, white and blue.

Smaller bows also are available, as are reindeer antlers that clip to a car’s windows and holiday hood covers that look like a vehicle’s hood has been covered in wrapping paper (it’s actually a polyspandex fabric that stretches over the hood).

For more information, visit www.carbowstore.org.

Larry Edsall is a Phoenix-based freelance writer. You can reach him at ledsall@cox.net.