WILLOWS FAMILY HOSTS LOCAL CHRISTMAS SALE
Holiday market a huge success as family looks to host a second event in two weeks
WILLOWS » When Katrina Miller and her family decided to host a Halloween event in October on the family property normally used as a wedding venue throughout the year, they hoped for maybe 30 kids to show up.
When nearly 400 people showed up, Miller, her mother Cathy Pryor and the rest of the family realized that the community needed something — something for the holidays.
They had the property to properly social distance as well as entertain, and with interest from local vendors and some decorations preparation for a possible event began. An appearance from Santa was also in the works.
“The community is our goal,” Miller said. “The community needs stuff and that’s what we’re here for.
To make the community better and give our vendors something to do so many people are hurting this year.”
On Saturday and Sunday Miller and her family hosted what they called the “1st Old Fashioned Christmas Fair” at their home and venue The Meadows in Willows. The family charged a small booth fee to cover electrical and restroom fees to break even, however the event was free to the public.
Santa was made available for photos two hours each day and vendors ranged from food, candles and wax melts, purses, signs and other hand-made goods.
Lotus Metal Art co-owner Kreg Brawley, who is based out of Durham, was selling art pieces he designed cut from metal, as well as handcarved wood animals.
All the wood carvings are carved by chainsaw and a hand grinder and are made from reclaimed wood from
the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise.
After much success, Saturday and continuing into Sunday, several vendors including Brawley reached out to Miller about a possible second weekend.
“Well we were not expecting a whole lot,” Brawley
said about his honest expectations leading into the event. “We were actually very busy. On Saturday it opened at 3 and from 3 to 6 we were really busy, we sold a lot of stuff. We’re selling a lot of the carvings, lots of metal art.”
For vendor Joseph Fontes, who has sold purses for the past 19 years at farmers markets and online for the past 19 years, he has been able to continue business with repeat customers online. However, Fontes said while shipping has made it nice and easy to continue the business, seeing customers and hearing stories
from customers about families was what made this weekend special.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s nice to get out and visit with everybody and you get to see people who you haven’t seen in a while,” Fontes said. “And that has made it nice just to be able to connect with them.”
Fontes, like Brawley, was very happy and surprised with Saturday’s turnout. He said there were visitors shopping until 7:30 p.m.,
even as temperatures got colder around 7.
Miller was excited to hear about the success, saying the happiness of vendors and visitors is how they were gauging success.
After much success Saturday and Sunday, Miller said the family is looking to host a similar-type holiday fair on December 12 and 13. She said this event
was planned in two weeks, and “we’ve got all the decorations up already so the hard part is done.”