St. Louisans love arts & crafts fairs. If you don’t believe me, just drive past John Burroughs School around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 21. You’ll see people waiting in line to pay their $5 admission fee so they can walk up and down the crowded corridors, looking for items they won’t find everywhere else–most of them handmade.
Burrough’s Unique Boutique, among the best-known of these holiday marts, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Chances are, when moms Beth Louis and Nori Obata started that first show, they didn’t realize how popular the event would become. “The show began as a sideline to a house tour sponsored by the Parents Council,” Louis recalls. Well, it replaced the labor-intensive house tour and has raised about $25,000 annually for the parents group to spend on teacher wish lists, scholarships and other projects.
There is indeed a special allure to shopping this way, to meeting the people who created the jewelry, toys, ceramics, glassware and other things you go there to admire, and to discussing the process with them. After all, it’s a more personal way to spend your money, and many view the handmade element as a premium you can’t put a price tag on.
This is the time of year when these shows proliferate: it’s prime shopping time for the holidays. Additionally, these events often serve as fundraisers for schools, churches and other groups at a time when shoppers are feeling particularly generous. Organizations make money both from the vendors, who have to pay a fee to sell there, and from the entrance fee sometimes charged for admittance. Furthermore, these shows make for a perfect ‘girls day out,’ when you can gather a few friends, visit as many shows as you can find in a day, and grab a casual lunch-on-the-go at one of them. Happy holiday marts shopping!
