By Ryan Clark
With communities all around Ottawa opening up Christmas markets, Preston Square is joining the party, bringing trees, lights and vendors to the building’s lobby.
The Preston Square pop-ups began on Nov. 19 and will take place each week, Wednesday to Friday until Dec. 19. The small markets will feature local business owners selling holiday goodies, from ornaments to snacks. On Nov. 26, there will be an official launch event, celebrating these pop-ups from 11-1.
For organizer Catherine Landry, promoting small businesses is a part of her day to day life. She says she has been an entrepreneur since age 11.
“I have kind of been working for myself my whole entire life, and it’s hard, it’s a hustle,” Landry said. “But where you’re going to find the most passionate, caring, community builders are in your local businesses.”
“They’re the heartbeat of neighbourhoods, they’re the community builders, the ones who give prizes for their soccer matches and give donations to charitable causes,” Landry continued.
Landry says she was approached by Preston Square about collaborating to put these pop-ups together, as they were aware of her connections with Ottawa entrepreneurs. Landry runs SheShopsLocal, a website dedicated to highlighting women-owned businesses in the Capital region.
“Without local, we’re just a steel tin town, no heart,” Landry said.
In addition to promoting local businesses, the pop-up is in support of the Ottawa Food Bank, as 10 per cent of proceeds are going towards helping the fight against food insecurity.
The vendors will rotate at the pop-up shops, with plenty of local businesses having the opportunity to showcase their festive catalogues.
One such vendor is Jennifer Lalonde, owner of Hand & Home Co, which sells simmer pot kits. Simmer pots are pots of boiling water that are filled with dried fruits and other scented materials. Lalonde sorts these materials into small bags designed to produce various fragrances.
“Cranberry orange would be just cranberries and oranges dried, with cinnamon, cloves and vanilla,” Lalonde said. “I usually will put vanilla on the fruit before dehydrating.”
Lalonde says that she just started the business back in September.
“This business was started for my grade 10 son’s business class,” Lalonde said. “I had a simmer pot on in September and he came and said ‘we should start a business, mom’ and we did.”
Lalonde says that her simmer pots are perfect for many different households.
“These ingredients naturally deodorize your home, especially if you have pets,” Lalonde said. “They’re pet safe, allergy safe, they’re great for families as well.”
Another business attending some days at the pop up is Colour Me Gifted.
Mila Olumogba says the business originated with her Black Santa plush.
“It started off with me just trying to find a black Santa plushie for my daughter because we couldn’t find them anywhere,” Olumogba said. “We even had a local toy store check with all their manufacturers and they couldn’t find any. So I created it, I decided to design them and have them manufactured.”
From there, her business grew to become one of the best sources of global holiday gifts.
“Our purpose is to bring racial and cultural diversity to the holiday season,” Olumogba said. “We design and manufacture a lot of our products or source them from different countries around the world.”
Landry is planning to continue pop-ups past the holiday season, and she already has several ideas of what she would like to do.
“We’re positive we’re going to do the pop-ups into January, February and March,” Landry said. “We’ll do like a series with authors, where each pop-up will have an author and their books. I want to do a plant pop-up as well, so the future is bright for this Preston Square pop-up situation.”
The Preston Square holiday pop-ups are an example of the fun that local businesses can bring to the community, something that Catherine Landry has been an advocate of for years.
“I just want to build pop-ups in every empty building in Ottawa,” Landry said, chuckling