'Tis the season to shop! Don't want the hassle of the mall? Make your holiday shopping experience more pleasurable by visiting White Rabbit Cottage at 3760 Due West Road in Marietta.

Owners Susan Hardy and Jenny Porter provide a different shopping experience you won't find on Barrett Parkway. Located near the intersection of Burnt Hickory Road in a historic cottage built in the early 1920s and a Gallery building using the same craftsman architecture, White Rabbit Cottage specializes in a wide range of home decor and gifts from sofas and oil paintings to soaps and jewelry.

"Our focus is to try to provide a very unique shopping environment," Kennesaw resident Porter said. "Our property is different. We have a historic building. Our grounds are different. It's a different shopping experience.

White Rabbit Cottage, formerly the Cantrell-Huggins House, originally sat on 28 acres of farmland when Dan Cantrell bought the property. His father started a general store in the front room of a temporary home on the property. After the Cantrell-Huggins home was completed, the retail store was rebuilt about 50 yards from the home.

The Cantrell-Huggins house changed hands several times and in 2001 Marietta resident Hardy and her husband, Randy, purchased the home from Aileen Huggins as an investment. White Rabbit Cottage opened November 2002.

A lover of rabbits, McEachern High School graduate Hardy found her inspiration for the name of the store from the White Rabbit in "Alice and Wonderland." "I'm always running late and the White Rabbit was always late," Hardy said, laughing.

More than 75 years after the Cantrells opened their general store on this property, White Rabbit Cottage continues the tradition of commerce and hospitality in west Cobb. "We try to provide something that is unique both in our merchandise and in our environment. To have a place that feels different," she said.

"Knee deep in tissue" during the holidays, White Rabbit Cottage offers something unique for any time of year. "We like to have our local people represented in our store with their merchandise," said Porter, noting Glory Haus, Pieces of Me, Twin Creation jewelry and cookbooks by Ginny McCormick as well as Johnny Gabriel are among the local artists represented.

Other gift ideas among the 200 lines carried in the store include Christmas ornaments, hand embroidered geographical pillows or imprinted dishtowels by Cat Studio of California, hand-beaded jewelry by Israeli artist Ayala Bar, and books such as "Walking with God in America" by Ken Duncan.

Voted "Best of Atlanta" by Atlanta Magazine in 2007 and 2008, customers from all over love the store and keep coming back. "One of the things we really pride ourselves on is that we get to know our customers and know as many as we can on a first-name basis," Porter said.

Visit White Rabbit Cottage on Tuesday from Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call (770) 919-1100 for more information.