They say Christmas comes earlier every year. This year, it started in July.
From Santa sightings to holiday shopping, the second annual Christmas in July craft show brought festivity to the World Equestrian Center in Ocala this weekend.
“It's a very diverse shopping experience,” said Jennifer Patterson, the coordinator for Ballantine Management, the host company. “We have artists, crafters, some boutiques, and some delicious treats. There'sa little bit of everything and something for everyone.”
Rows of booths decked out in decorations, the smell of roasting peanuts and the sound of Christmas carols livened up the atmosphere. Over 175 vendors participated, giving shoppers a chance to support small businesses months before the holidays.
The event featured jewelry, Christmas wreaths, handmade ceramics, sourdough bread, custom clothing, holiday gnomes, ornaments and many more items.
The first 500 people at the event received a Michael’s tote bag and coupon, and they raffled off prizes sponsored by the vendors every half hour.
While Santa is normally the one giving gifts, he left that up to the vendors despite the fact he was in attendance.
“When Santa takes a vacation, what better place to go than Florida,” Santa said. “You know how it is being cold all the time?”
To prepare, many vendors pulled out their Christmas decorations and seasonal products before they normally would.
Sabrina Shenk, of Down By The Sea Designs, doesn’t typically start selling Christmas-themed items until October.
“So we did make some extra Christmas products for this show,” Shenk said.“ We put up more Christmas lights and normally my summer shows I don't light up my Christmas trees”
She typically uses small white Christmas trees to display her products but for this event she used the taller floor-standing one.
Along with decorations, vendors have other ways of making the event feel like the holidays.
“We also priced our product like we do at Christmas time,” said Dave Dorsho of Dave’s Rub-A-Dub-Dub. “We always give some specials out.”
Vendors were excited to participate in the event because of three main things, its good advertising, there’s parking, and air conditioning.
Ballantine Management produced the event and had the responsibility of advertising it. This made participation a huge attraction for vendors as they knew people would show up. Ballantine Management advertised on social media, WEC’s website, signs around town, and the staff even wore shirts with their logo.
The venue offered free parking and large lots to accommodate the considerable number of attendees. This is an important aspect of getting customers to show up. If there isn’t enough parking, people can’t come into the event. They also had several buses chartering from the Villages to bring anyone unable to drive.
While the hot weather outside is frightful, the A/C is so delightful. An overwhelming reason vendors and shoppers were inclined to attend the event was because it was indoors.
“Even though we're in July, it does make us feel like we're in Christmas because it is cool in here,” said David Gallops of Simply Wild Designs.
Some vendors are unable to go to markets during summer because of the heat and chance of getting rained out.
Several attendees were just happy to be able to go to an event inside and didn’t show up for the Christmas aspect. On the other hand, some are complete Christmas enthusiasts.
Kailie Gage was at the event with her mom and six-month old daughter.
“My mom’s here, so we’re just kind of finding something to do,” Gage said. “She’s at the perfect age where she will look around at everything to see what’s going on.”
Linda Fleming and Sue Blanchard attended the event together to avoid the heat and see what the crafters had to offer.
Blanchard stated she was planning to put up six Christmas trees this year and there are some items she can only get at this event.
“Having it in July when it's hot out, and you can come here and get ideas for what you want to do for Christmas and plan ahead. I think that's just awesome,” Blanchard said.
Even though it is still 90 degrees outside, Christmas in July showed that the holiday spirit doesn’t have to wait until December. For one weekend, shoppers, vendors and Santa himself came together as a community for holiday traditions, local craftsmanship and early gift shopping.