COVID uncertainty prompts cancellation of Fall Into Christmas

Uncertainty surrounding the potential impact of COVID-19 numbers into the fall has resulted in the cancellation of the Fall Into Christmas Hard and Handicraft Market for a second consecutive year.

The 2021 edition of the market had been scheduled for October 2 and 3, but out of an abundance of caution Show Managers Cyndi and Stew Tasche have opted to cancel the event for 2021.

“COVID numbers are on the rise across the prairie provinces and most of Canada and the number of new cases, spread broadly across Saskatchewan, have recently been reported to have met and surpassed our highest daily count from any point of the pandemic. At the time of the cancellation decision, the trajectory of the fourth wave of infection was strongly upward with projections for this trend to continue through the next month,” explained Co Show Manager Cyndi Tasche.

“As organizers for Fall Into Christmas, we felt a strong responsibility, to exercise prudence for the protection of all, whether they be local shoppers, vendors traveling into our area or our children under the age 12 who remain vulnerable”.

“We were all in this together as we held on to the last moment to make this critical decision. I share with the vendors and patrons a profound disappointment. I will remain optimistic. I am hopeful, too, that our vendors will remain optimistic and receive their 2022 invitations next January and try again by filling that application for the show”.

She pointed out that vendors attend the annual market from across Western Canada, and shoppers attend from across the entire Southwest, so the decision to cancel was partially in reaction surrounding the concern of further spreading COVID and the public’s lower confidence in attending indoor events.

“At the mercy of the COVID numbers, we seem to have lost in the race between the variant and the vaccination and we, like so many others in business, whether vendor or organizer, have lost our business for another fall season.”

Fall Into Christmas 2022 information will be prepared early in the new year with every expectation that next fall’s show will go ahead. Always the weekend just before Thanksgiving, the dates for 2022 will be October 1st and 2nd.