Department 56

Department 56 was founded in 1976. Originally, it was part of Bachman's, a retail florist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bachman's employed a numbering system to identify each of its departments. The number assigned to the wholesale gift imports division was 56.

Edward Rudy Bazinet (born 26 November 1943 in Ramsey County, Minnesota) founded the company by convincing the Bachman family to invest $50,000 in starting the division in 1976. He was appointed its first president when Department 56 was spun off as a $15 million subsidiary in 1984. He was a talented employee of Bachman's who won the Minnesota State Florist Association's 1964 Designer of the Year competition. Bazinet sold Department 56 in 1992, and remained in company leadership positions until his retirement in 1997. Bazinet was a 1996 Gift for Life honoree for his support to HIV/AIDS research, education, prevention, and treatment. In 2000–2001, Department 56 donated at least $25,000 to the Walker Art Center in honor of Bazinet (who also donated to the art center that year). A $20 million spending spree by Bazinet at a New York gift fair in 2012, for which he received headlines, was reported as being due to a bipolar episode. Bazinet died on November 20, 2017, leaving a $54 million estate.

In 1993, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol of "DFS". At its peak in the 1990s, the stock traded for $40 a share. In 2005, after purchasing Lenox from Brown-Forman, the company changed its name to "Lenox Group Inc" and its ticker symbol to "LNX". After failing to meet the exchange's requirements, trading was moved to the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker "LENX". Lenox filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and was acquired by the private equity firm Clarion Capital Partners. Enesco acquired Department 56 from Lenox that year.

Department 56 has been headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota since June 25, 1991. As of May 2015, the company had about 30 employees, and its sales had grown seven to eleven percent per year over the prior four years. About two-thirds of sales are via smaller gift and Christmas shops, but the most recent growth has been through national retail stores, with Amazon also among the biggest customers.