JENN BUKOWSKI, owner of The Makers Bazaar, a multi-artisan marketplace in Wolfeboro, is selling a variety of items at this year’s Holiday Shoppes at Tuscan Village.
Among the offerings: mini light up Christmas trees, holiday-theme pencils, braided rugs, hand-made ceramic ornaments, snow globes. Even holiday-them nail files.
This time of year, her Lakes Region town is quieter, and Bukowski was drawn to the opportunity to feature her merchandise at a large customer base.
“This is where people come. You can’t wait for people to come to you,” said Bukowksi, a first-year participant. “You have to go where people are. It’s been good so far.”
The Maker Bazaar is one of approximately 75 outdoor vendors at the Salem shopping, dining and lodging complex, located just off Route 28 and I-93 Exit 1.
With a focus on craftsmen, creators and artists, many of which work at home, the festive, multiple-week shopping event features a wide variety of products, including jewelry, games and toys, home goods, apparel, holiday ornaments, and kitchen and garden items.
“We have pretty much everything you could imagine here at Holiday Shoppes,” said Peter “Diggy” Lawson, who works in marketing for Tuscan Brands. “Crafts people are a big part of it.”
Last year’s event drew more than 20,000 visitors from across New England, Lawson said.
“This year it’s going to be upwards of 30,000 because we’re doing events bigger and better,” he said.
A 55-foot Christmas tree will be lit up at dusk on Saturday, Dec. 7, a day that will be full of festivities, including Christmas caroling, dancers, family fun activities and food.
“We want our guests to feel like they’re in a winter wonderland at Tuscan Village,” Lawson said.
There is also a Festival of Trees, which opened a couple of weeks ago on Nov. 15 and runs through Dec 8. More than 40 Christmas trees, sponsored and decorated by local businesses and organizations, are featured in the veranda outside the Artisan Hotel at the Tuscan complex.
Tickets cost $10 per person, and kids 10 and younger are admitted free. Proceeds from the event, which will feature light bites and a full bar, will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salem. The trees are raffled off at the end of the event.
Vendors participating in the Holiday Shoppes are each doing business in a separate three-sided covered structure with an open façade. The site is decorated with wreaths and hanging lights and customers can sit outside next to fire pits.
“We try to get a wide variety of vendors. The vendors do a great job adding to the holiday spirit around Tuscan Village here,” Lawson said. “We have a lot of repeat vendors because they enjoyed it so much last year. It’s a great way to get their business name out there.”
Peter Viteritti, who owns VPV Photography with his wife Vicki in Beverly, Mass., decided to participate this year after being told by a vendor that they had previously drawn a good amount of business. Viteritti, whose company creates coasters and wall art, hasn’t been disappointed.
“We’re very happy with this. Already, we hope to be here every year,” said Viteritti during the event’s second weekend. “It was good all weekend, very busy.”
Viteritti’s products are in approximately 150 stores wholesale. The company has created coasters for actor Steve Carell’s general store in Marshfield Hills, Mass., and for the Plainville, Mass., bookstore, An Unlikely Story, co-owned by “Diary of a Whimpy Kid” book series author Jeff Kinney.
Kathleen Barone, owner of KB Bead Designs, a hand-crafted jewelry business in Bradford, Mass., first came to Tuscan Village as a pop up and is now a repeating Holiday Shoppes vendor. Some of her featured products, she said, make for nice stocking stuffers.
Like Bukowski, a strong customer turnout is appealing for her business.
“I thought it would be a nice venue,” she said. “I did a lot of private home shows in people’s homes. This is a better opportunity for me to reach a broader audience. Plus, this place is incredible. It’s really a family-oriented place.”
Customers are curious how her products are made, Barone said. Viteritti said many people want to know if his products — his coasters feature a textured or crackled finish — are original.
Like other vendors, Meredith Thomas enjoys interacting with customers. But she also enjoyed bonding with the event’s other merchants.
“It’s a great community,” said Thomas, who operates Ken’s Corn, a maker of flavored popcorn, in Derry with her husband, Scott. “We’ve made friends that have become like family. And sales — there’s a good customer base here.”
The Holiday Shoppes at Tuscan Village are open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday thorugh Sunday in November and expanded to Thursday through Sunday in December. The last day is Tuesday, Dec. 24, when the shoppes close at 4 p.m.
