For the past 16 years, Amanda Todd has been the brains behind the Brown & Co Christmas windows.

Ms Todd, who is hearing impaired, is responsible for all the bows, Christmas nutcracker soldiers and twinkling lights in the store’s Reid Street and Queen Street windows.

This year, as she put things together, passers-by had a lot to say.

“Sometimes people would knock on the window and then give me a thumbs-up,” she said.

She appreciated the positive affirmations, but eventually had to put up brown paper in the windows to gain some peace while she worked.

Years ago, she was stocking Brown & Co’s Hallmark section when a previous window dresser, the late William Collieson, noticed her eye for design.

“He had a room upstairs,” Ms Todd said. “He really encouraged me.”

She was sad when he died two years ago.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for him,” she said.

Ms Todd studied art and design at Kingston College of Art & Design in London.

“I wanted to do interior design focusing on bedrooms and kitchens,” she said.

Instead she went to work for Brown & Co.

She views the window arranging as a hobby, but would love to expand to other arenas such as theatre sets.

“I have never been asked to do something like that,” she said.

Putting together a display that both entertains the people going by and effectively advertises the stores’ wares has its challenges.

The windows reflect different departments, such as books or tourist items. Some of the departments tend to have smaller items than others.

“For some of the windows, it takes a lot to fill them up,” she said. “For other windows, it is easier because the products in them are bigger and bulkier.”

Another challenge is lighting everything. A Christmas scene needs lots of little lights.

She had to seek help from another employee who handles the electrical side of things in the store.

“Because this is such an old building, not all of the outlets in the windows actually work,” she said.

In the old days, Mr Collieson made everything in the window from wood.

Ms Todd does not have his carpentry skills, so instead constructs from cardboard. It involves a lot of cutting and praying.

“Because many of my items are constructed from cardboard, they are lighter,” she said. “Sometimes they fall over.”

This year the store ordered some nutcracker soldiers to put in the window. She did not like them.

“They were very flat,” she said.

So she revamped them, adding a nose and changing the colour of the soldier’s clothing to better suit Brown & Co’s colours.

It took her two weeks to put everything together. Her boss, operations manager Sarah Jackson, was pleased because they were done a week before the target of Black Friday.

In previous years, even with other people helping, they finished within a whisker of Black Friday.

When Ms Todd comes to work in the morning now, it gives her a rush of pride to see her handiwork in the windows.

“Working on the windows has made me more confident,” she said.

Now that the windows are done, she is working on other projects in the store. When she spoke to The Royal Gazette, she was holding a long strand of fishing line.

She was using it to bring life to a Santa Claus costume hanging in the store.

Ms Todd admits to being a prankster.

Once she dressed up a mannequin to look like her boss, Ms Jackson, then placed it in the boss’s chair to surprise her when she walked in.

Ms Jackson was less than pleased to find this strange person in her seat. When she realised she had been duped, everyone had a giggle. The mannequin now has a permanent place in Ms Jackson’s office, just not in her chair.

“Because I am hearing impaired, I don’t speak very well,” Ms Todd said. “By nature, I am a loud person. Playing pranks on people is my way of connecting and having a laugh with everyone.”