Church’s holiday bazaar returning

BELLA VISTA — After 35 years, it might seem like there will be nothing new at the St. Bernard Women’s Club’s Annual Holiday Bazaar, but that’s not the case.

Each year, the bazaar workers decide on a theme and create craft items around it.

This year, in honor of the event’s 35th anniversary, the theme is “Thirty-five years of Christmas Traditions.” Nativity scenes represent the theme, including the raffle prize — a handmade adult throw, quilted in panels depicting the Nativity.

The event is scheduled from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Parish Hall at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church.

It all began the year the crafters found a pattern for a penguin dressed for Christmas. They were so popular, the next year’s theme was “The Return of the Marching Penguins.” Each year since, a new theme has been adopted.

Organizer Patty Carter recommends that shoppers take a day to enjoy the bazaar. There’s a lot more to it than crafts.

First, they should try the coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, she said. Church volunteers do all the cooking and donate the ingredients.

Then customers can shop for handcrafted items, collectibles and maybe some jewelry, she said.

The organizers, Carter said, have lots of ties to the community. Each year, they organize a special room of “trinkets and treasures.” Often the donations come from parishioners or their families who are downsizing. Everything is cleaned up and sometimes repaired before it is sold.

There is always a floral room. Donated wreaths and silk flower arrangements are taken apart and reassembled into new arrangements. New flowers are added, and faded ones are discarded.

Every year at St. Bernard a few Christmas trees are sold, Carter said. Since the bazaar always takes place at the beginning of the Christmas season, some people get a great deal on a tree, she said. And, if they want, there are plenty of handmade ornaments for sale as well.

“We like it to have some chill in the air,” Carter said about the annual event. Besides the trees and Christmas decor, the bazaar always has a hot lunch available. It’s usually chili and chicken noodle soup that can be eaten in the on-site “cafe” or taken home. Carter recommends eating one of the offerings for lunch and taking home the other for dinner.

When the bazaar is over, the group takes only a couple of weeks off. The work for the next bazaar begins in January. The group of crafters meets every Tuesday to work together using equipment and some materials from the church “craft room,” but that’s only a portion of the work. Most of the crafters take work home as well, and most of the materials they use are donated.

“It’s really a social thing,” she explained. “We’re not just making crafts. We share lives and community.”

Over the years, they have raised over $ 600,000 for charities including Sharing and Caring, a nonprofit with a Christmas program to help needy families. That organization may also receive some of the bazaar leftovers, she said.

Even during the pandemic, the crafters found a way to continue their tradition. During the fall of 2020, a sale was set up for parishioners with tables scattered around the edges of the large multipurpose room with just a few customers shopping at a time.

“We took our show on the road,” Carter remembered. She and a few other crafters took items to nearby open air markets that fall. They wanted to continue fundraising for the charities that were unable to hold their own fundraisers.

This year, the full bazaar is back with food, raffles, treasures and crafts.

(Submitted Photo) Although Christmas is the theme of the annual St. Bernard Holiday Bazaar, there is plenty of year-round decor as well as raffles and food. The event will be held on Nov. 5.