All I want for Christmas is: craft beer, concrete necklaces, hand-carved reindeer and homemade soap. And thanks to Ottawa’s Christmas Markets opening up across the city, those things and more are never too far.
Filling community centres, parks and even museums, it’s hard to deny the high spirits and popularity of shopping local.
Besides offering unique, artisan goods to consumers amidst Black Friday deals and holiday shopping sprees, holiday-style markets also offer a meaningful opportunity for small businesses and local crafters to share their goods with the public and expand their reach for sales all year long.
For Bloom Artisan, a jewelry and accessory shop run by Ottawa designer Lisa Wilson, the markets represent a number of great opportunities to connect with jewelry lovers and holiday shoppers of all kinds, helping shape her future designs and collections.
“I actually love when I get the chance to interact with the customers and see their response and their feedback on what I’ve come up with,” she says.
It’s an important part of Wilson’s design process in order to sell new items, figure out what customers are looking for and what items they can’t find anywhere else. She can then take that knowledge home and use it in her future designs.
In recent years there has been a serious shift towards buying, eating and drinking local, with loca-vore movements and trends like the 100-mile diet. The loca-vore lifestyle trend signals a movement towards products that are produced, sold and harvested close to home, cutting carbon emissions and encouraging the local economy. During the holidays, this ideology expands to giving.
With last year’s official launch of the reinstated Christmas Farmers Market at Lansdowne Park, there are more opportunities than ever to find new businesses and “craftisans” from around Ottawa, creating and selling everything from soaps and shampoos, to jewelry, beer or household goods.
Wilson herself stays especially busy this time of year, as most of her business runs through shows and markets, with an accompanying online shop on the peer-to-peer commerce site Etsy, which specializes in handmade and vintage goods.
“At this time of year I’m busy every weekend at shows, and it’s different types of people, and different likes,” she says. “This is the biggest show period for me.”
Wilson even goes so far as to double-book herself during the holiday season, trying her best to represent her work at every opportunity. It means something special for her to make a connection with the people buying, wearing and gifting her creations, even if sometimes she has to enlist help.
“I like to have that interaction myself,” she says, especially when that interaction can help her to produce more successful designs in the future.
Bloom’s work and passion are great representations of the uniqueness and the variety that holiday markets offer to gift-givers this time of year.
Wilson has been designing jewelry and accessories, mostly made with repurposed metal and concrete, for the last 20 years.
This month at Lansdowne Market, more than 100 vendors such as Bloom Artisan will offer their goods over four weekends, selling everything from local wine, to alpaca wool sweaters and knits, to hand-made soft-soled leather shoes for infants and children.
For shoppers, markets are a great opportunity to cross off everyone on their Christmas list in one fell swoop, ensuring smiles on Christmas morning.
And the sheer number of shoppers during the holiday season makes it an ideal time for any artist to set up a stand and display their goods. Even if it’s just to pass out a business card and make a connection that can lead to sales and more shopping later.
For Wilson it also means exploring the city, seeing new faces and hearing people’s reactions to her work.
And the proof is in the pudding. In this case the crowds at the front of her booth and the customers eyeing the jewelry are sure signs of success.
No matter how you slice it, there’s plenty of ways to check everyone off the list this season, even if you want a hippopotamus for Christmas – they come on jewelry too.