Three-year-old Charlotte Knapp, disguised as Cindy-Lou Who Cindy-Lou Who, carried the hope of Christmas in her tiny hands, Saturday.
Knapp was one of a half-a-dozen children who attended Bradford’s Outdoor Christmas Market decked out in elf ware.
“All she said was, ‘I want a surprise for Christmas’,” her mother Stephanie Knapp said her daughter had requested earlier that day.
“That’s all she said, a ‘surprise’. We’re still trying to figure that one out,” she said with a grin.
On an unusually warm, windy day that reached 15 degrees Celsius, the market in the parking lot behind the Bradford West Gwillimbury Library and Cultural Centre had a surreal spring-like quality to it.
In ugly Christmas sweaters and light jackets, more than a dozen booths welcomed elves of all ages, including Nathan Singh, 8, and Paige Walters, 34, who dressed up in Christmas gear to enjoy the festival atmosphere.
Singh was handing out free hot chocolate and coffee to attendees, while Walters was selling her own hand-made felt animal key rings.
“The wind can’t blow away our good spirits,” Walters said, adjusting her jingling sleeves she’d covered in little drums and bells, as her display shook with another gust.
A few booths over, Liz Halatgh of Taste of Nature was enjoying her first time at the open market. Selling homemade jams, Baklava, oils and dressings, Halatgh said she was enjoying the holiday atmosphere.
“We’ve done the Streetsville market, that was outdoors and it was really cold. It’s so nice that this Christmas market is warmer,” she said.
Also new to Bradford’s market was Brenda Belfry in her This and That booth, full of Christmas crafts including hand-painted rolling pins, birdhouses and wooden Grinch books.
“I just started up (my business) in Thornton and it was snowy and muddy. This is nice. I have other family members doing the same thing out west and I thought, ‘I could do that’ so here I am,” Belfry said.
Singh was with his parents Jenn and Shane from Bradford’s Springh Farms selling their storage veggies such as potatoes, leeks and squash along with locally grown apples, pears and tomatoes.
Vendors at the market for the past eight years, Jenn said pre-COVID-19, the market organizers would host a scavenger hunt for the children.
“It’s still fun, there’s music and it’s going well,” Jenn said, adding, “It’s important to support local, help the economy in your own town.”
