East Market Streets lies the historic Downtown Charlottesville Mall, a shopping venue situated only a trolley ride away. During November and December, the eastern end of the Downtown Mall becomes the Holiday City Market, thriving with vendors from local businesses that offer a sundry range of handcrafted or homegrown goods. Varying from hand-woven baskets of all sizes to unusual-shaped pottery with splashes of color, to international foods from countries such as Croatia, each individual booth offers unique products that are a refreshing change from the usual holiday shopping scene.
"I like the diversity of it all," first-year College student Myron Ballard said. "I like the antiques [here better] because in a store, I usually don't see such different pieces. Since everything is handmade, everything feels more personal than things at a store that are mass-produced."
One of these booths bore the sign "100% Inedible Jewelry," exhibiting miniature hamburgers, cupcakes, watermelons and other food charms fastened to chains to form earrings, necklaces and other accessories. Owners and sisters Jessica and Susan Partain sat behind their trays molding bits of polymer clay into new, inedible food art, seemingly oblivious to passerbys' squeals of admiration.
"We come from a food-obsessed family [and] we used to make the furniture for our dollhouses, but jewelry is a lot more fun," Jessica Partain said.
The Partain sisters, now in their second year at the Holiday City Market, are habitual vendors. They usually sell their specialty products at the City Market during the summer, much like David Shalloway of C-ville Candy Company. As the name of his company suggests, Shalloway's booth displays confections such as orange cashews, fudge and honey brittles.
"The nice thing about the Market is that it's very special, and you can't get [these products] anywhere else," Shalloway said, pausing for a moment to offer a mother and her daughter a bite-sized sample of fudge.
Shalloway runs his confectionary business part-time while working a full-time job elsewhere and said he sees the Market as an opportunity to promote his products, each crafted from his own recipe.
"It seems to have worked well. People have come by saying that they heard others talking about [the sweets] at a coffee shop and came down here to try some, so it's a good way to advertise," he said. "[The Holiday City Market] is a really nice place to be. A lot of people come back to find me again year after year."
A customer walks directly over to the pumpkin-spice peanut brittle, one of Shalloway's best-selling candies. She remarks that she gave some to her mother as a gift last year and decided she needed to come back to pick up some for herself.
Nearby, fourth-year College student Xandria Fleurke gazes at a rack covered top-to-bottom with an endless array of handmade earrings and purses before taking a moment to express her admiration of the goods to their designer.
"I think this is one of the unique things about Charlottesville that really opens up opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurship," Fleurke said. "I like how it's local -- I really like the jewelry because it's a lot more unique and eclectic than if you go to a mall or a department store, and sometimes you can get a really good deal."
The marketplace setting is not only economical for buyers, but for sellers as well. According to Deborah Campbell, owner of Nouveau Chic, a company that sells 18th-century-style items, vendors must pay a $10 registration fee to set up for the season and a 6-percent slot fee each day. In addition, a 2.5-percent or 5-percent sales tax is charged for food or non-food vendors who do not possess a registered sales-tax number.
"When you're a retailer and you're looking at the overhead, it's really affordable," Campbell said. "Another nice thing about the Holiday Market is that I am able to monitor my online store while I'm selling here. Not a lot of other markets are like that."
Whether you're a buyer looking for specialty goods or a seller in search of a different locale to market your product, this holiday season, it would be worth your while to venture downtown to see Charlottesville's own Holiday City Market.
The Market runs from Nov. 2 to Dec. 22, every Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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