Christmas Cottage

Run by Kelly and Carter Tepper, the Christmas Cottage was an establishment that specialized in the burning of Christmas trees and other holiday paraphernalia. However, as they were needing money before the big post-Christmas rush, they attempted to encourage people to burn their Christmas materials before the actual holiday. This did not succeed, and they went out of business in late 2014. They came back in the spring of 2015 with a new business, the Easter Cottage, which specialized in the burning of Easter-related paraphernalia. As this business, too, was suffering, they applied for a general burning permit from mayor Bane Jeckyll Jr. However, in the midst of national uproar over such anti-gay legislation as the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Actand national conservative support for businesses that publicly embraced homophobia, the Teppers posted a sign at their business to the effect that they would burn nothing brought to them by a member of the LGBT community. Subsequently, they had over one million dollars raised for them by conservative activists and were able to leave Murfreesboro. Ted and Ralph later bought the equipment and incorporated it into their own business, now Glory Shelf Bibles, Balloons, and Burning. In late 2015, Colin Tepper, son of Kelly and Carter, returned to Murfreesboro to restart the Christmas Cottage, the family having kept the naming rights. He planned to begin burning Christmas-related garbage in March 2016.