Jingle tills
Local crafters ring in holiday bargain season
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Brenda Sue Pike holds up a hand-painted holiday ornament by Ellie Chiccarelli she found at the Poultney Christmas Fair Friday afternoon. ALBERT J. MARRO / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By DAWSON RASPUZZI Herald Staff - Published: November 29, 2008
Away from the lines and crowds at large retail stores advertising marked-down Early Bird specials on products made across the world, the Poultney High School gymnasium was a full house of shoppers looking for other types of deals.
About 60 vendors had homemade crafts, and clothes, food products, toys, Christmas decorations and art for sale at the first day of the Poultney Christmas Fair, put on by the Vermont Farmers' Market.
"There's always a lot of unique, high-quality gifts here and I came to support the local business people," Jessica Vaughan said as she walked out of the fair.
Vaughan and her family were visiting relatives in Poultney from their home in Franklin, Mass., for Thanksgiving weekend and like many others returning home for the holidays, the Vaughans made sure to check out the rare, locally produced items for sale.
While in the state, Vaughan said it was a necessity to pick up a gift basket of maple syrup to bring home, and her daughter, Meredith, said it was the homemade baklava and all the free samples she would remember most.
Families returning to the area are one of the reasons the fair, which has been held on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend at the high school for the last 20 years, is so successful each winter.
The other big reason, said William Clark, president of the Vermont Farmers' Market, is the variety of high-quality items that can't be found in any of the chain stores.
"It's a great weekend because people are here for the holidays, but I feel we even pull some people in over from the mall because we have a lot of genuine Vermont items here that aren't at the mall," Clark said.
Of those items, Clark said people can find the largest selection of jams and jellies he's ever run across in the state, with more than 100 varieties being sold by a half-dozen residents, primarily from Rutland County but including some from Addison and Windsor counties and Washington County, N.Y.
No matter where the vendors come from though, some things are guaranteed, said the fair's show manager, Jamie Condrill. "Everything needs to be homemade … and the quality is always very high, all of the vendors have really nice things."
One of those vendors selling prints of her watercolor paintings was Margaret Stinger of Wells.
Standing in front of a backdrop of picturesque Vermont scenes — filled with dilapidated red barns, snow-covered farms, forest creatures and deep woods, Stinger and her husband, Alex, chatted with passers-by who marveled at her works.
"They're all pictures I've done from wherever I've been," the retired art teacher said. "I just love doing it so it's not a chore to me."
The satisfaction the vendors get from creating their goods — whether it's crafts or food — is the reason many said they continually return to the Christmas Fair and others like it each year with tables full of new supplies.
The different things they sell are what keep many of the shoppers coming back.
"I've been coming for about 10 years now … there's a bigger variety of things here that craft fairs in our area don't have," said Mary Ann Pierce, who came with her daughter, Karen Gatus, from Hoosick Falls, N.Y., to do some Christmas shopping.
The two-day Christmas Fair concludes today and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Another Christmas Fair in Rutland will be held at the same time Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Holiday Inn, with many of the same vendors setting up displays.
"We have a bit of a turnover so people will see some different things in some of the shows," said Condrill.
Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at dawson.raspuzzi@rutlandherald.com.
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