Decking the Halls at Waldorf Mall Not Happening This Year WALDORF ---- The St. Charles Mall was not that busy this past Saturday evening with Macy’s doing a brisk business with great sales, but the overall condition of the mall was anything but festive as the decline of what was once the premier shopping area for Southern Maryland continues to decline; and someone forgot to decorate the aging center for Christmas. As the Festival Center and the Market Place expand with loads of new stores, the old mall with its decay and decline depend more than ever on it’s anchor stores for drawing a crowd. Sears, Kohl and Macy’s appear to be holding their own but the mall’s dreary appearance has some merchants chomping at the bit to leave at this busiest time of the year. Even Santa took a hike early on Saturday evening, leaving his small Santa Land which is tucked away at one end of the mall near the Macy’s home store, empty with no way for children to tell the jolly old elf what they want for Christmas. If not on Saturday, when? But that appeared to be the rule of the yule for the St. Charles Mall. No holly decking the halls of the mall, no Christmas music and a lonely uniformed guard, without a firearm, standing with his arms folded as groups of youths waltzed through the large center, behaving, but making one wonder what one unarmed guard would be doing should violence occur or the large number of teens, who were not shopping, got rowdy. The kiosks which formerly did a good business in the center of the mall were populated only by a few clerks standing around talking to each other while the cut rate stores which have moved into the once pricey retail space were the principal places of commerce. Besides the lack of any Christmas décor inside the mall, there were no customary snowflakes or other outside lights making it seem that what should be the most important part of the retail year was nothing special. One merchant said that his business is way off of the past three years and the decline in the traffic in the mall makes it to the point that he will close his store at the end of his lease.