ATHOL – Regular shoppers at the Market Basket at North Quabbin Commons in Athol should take a moment and look atop the store’s courtesy booth.

There, they’ll spot Statler and Waldorf, Kermit, Robin the Frog (portraying Tiny Tim), Gonzo and other Muppet characters welcoming holiday shoppers. All are part of a display depicting characters from the movie “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”

“This is my favorite Christmas movie,” said courtesy booth Manager Miranda Brouillet. “It’s always been my favorite Christmas movie. Thankfully, the (store) manager has a lot of trust in me and he didn’t blink an eye. He said, ‘How about it we do Peanuts?’ and I said, ‘No, we’ll do The Muppets Christmas Carol’ and he said, ‘Oh, great.’”

Brouillet said she began making characters for the display at the beginning of October. After a brief hiatus due to the pandemic, she said, Market Basket decided to reinstitute a holiday decorating contest among all the courtesy booths in the chain.

“They wanted to breathe new life into it,” she said, “so, a few years ago they decided to do the competition again; and ever since then I’ve been kind of like ramping it up. The first year I did it all by myself, but now I have someone who is just as passionate about as I am.”

That person, she said, being store manager Rob Marshall.

Brouillet said she used mostly material available at the store with which to form her characters.

“And then I would wrap that in masking tape and then just kind of disguised all of that with clothes,” she said, adding that fabric for the clothes came from nearby Hobby Lobby.

As Brouillet was being interviewed, a number of patrons strolled by, looked up, and began their shopping with a smile.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.