Lehigh Valley Marketplace

By J.F. Pirro

With her line of unique and custom Christmas ornaments, Lisa Kelechava’s Joy To The World Collectibles, Inc. holds star appeal. The company was founded to help raise awareness for various celebrities’ charities and since Kelechava–who left corporate America in 1998 and is Lee Iacocca’s niece–started her Knoxville, Tenn.-based business, ornament sales have benefited 100-plus charities including Betty White and the Morris Animal Foundation to Lance Armstrong and his LIVESTRONG Foundation. Other charities have included Ted Danson and the American Oceans Campaign and a series with Kenny Rogers — And The Beat Goes On — for the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which provides musical instruments to underprivileged children.

While Joy To the World’s ornaments are sold internationally by top-flight retailers and catalogers, Kelechava continues to create exclusive ornaments for the Moravian Book Shop, Lehigh University (her alma mater), Musikfest and now the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

The Moravian Book Shop was the first retailer to place an order in 1998. “There will always be a special bond there,” Kelechava says.

Since 2000, Joy To The World (JTW) has designed a different-colored version of the Bethlehem Star for the popular book shop. This year, the star is a green topaz and gold. “It’s probably the prettiest and most unusual one we’ve done,” Kelechava says. “It has an edgier look.”

For three years running, she’s designed a ball ornament for Musikfest, and this year also created a flat glass postcard that reads “Greetings from the Christmas City,” and features ballast furnaces and the Central Moravian Church. The back can be signed and personalized. During this past summer’s festival, Kelechava came home for a signing, a new venture for her.

Each year, there’s a new ornament for the Lehigh University Bookstore. This year’s is “Varsity Snowman.” Dressed in brown and white, he’s holding a Lehigh pennant.

When The Sands opened, JTW commemorated the event with a ball ornament. Available in the casino’s gift shop, it features the Ore Bridge and the casino logo.

There were 13 initial ornaments in 1998, then soon, many others. JTW quickly began tapping into its various markets. What began as two ornaments for Betty White and Morris quickly expanded to 13 — “our lucky number,” Kelechava says — in its Pet Set Collection. Now, there are 300-plus pet ornaments, mostly rare breed dogs, including 45 new pet molds in 2009. Ten percent of JTW’s Pet Set wholesale profits still benefit Morris.

The 2009 Collection, the company’s largest, includes 170 new designs. Handcrafted in Poland, each ornament takes seven days to make. High-end, they range in price from $17 to $150.

There are seven different collections, but three variations of Glitterazzi, a line that debuted in 2007 with gemstones, an industry first. JTW also collaborates with the Schaller Family of Coburg, Germany on an exquisite line of papier maché items and glass ornaments.

Fifty percent of all business is custom orders for clients as famous as Walt Disney and Bloomingdale’s. For Tommy Bahama, a commemorative Hawaiian shirt made its debut in November. For Alaska, there was a 2009 ornament to mark the 50th anniversary of its statehood. “We’re not a seasonal business, even though we sell Christmas ornaments,” Kelechava says. “We’ve created an interest year-round.”

Typically, there’s an “it” ornament a family buys each year to add to a collection and eventually pass down. Ornaments, she says, are a collectible with a function. “Every year, we put up trees and get out our ornaments — and JTW is now part of that tradition,” she says.

Growing up in Bethlehem, trimming the tree — Christmas as a whole — was a family-oriented tradition. “There’s nothing like the holidays in Bethlehem,” Kelechava says. “It’s ironic I landed in the Christmas business.”

Though she often downplays her relationship with her Uncle Lee (her mother’s brother), she can’t dismiss the entrepreneurial savvy and business sense that infused her upbringing. “I’d have to say entrepreneurship was in my DNA,” Kelechava says.

Her grandfather, Nicola Iacocca, an Italian immigrant, lived the America Dream. He owned restaurants and rental car agencies, and was a real estate developer. Her father, Lawrence Kelechava, started Bethlehem Ford, which her brothers, Lee and Kurt, continued after his death in 1986. Until her breakthrough, everyone else in the family was a male entrepreneur — so she’s both continued, yet broken the family mold.

For more information or a free catalog, call 1-888-367-5889 or visit www.Joytotheworldonline.com. To purchase the local ornaments directly, call the Moravian Book Shop (610-866-5481), Lehigh University Book Store (610-758 3774), The Sands Casino Gift Shop (1-877-Sands77) or The Banana Factory Gift Shop (610-332-1305).

J.F. Pirro has been published in more than 75 magazines and dozens of daily and weekly alternative city newspapers. He’s particulary interested in profiles, social trends and sports and recreation topics.