Open for the first time this holiday season, the Holland Cross Christmas Village is looking to become a yearly tradition in Hintonburg.
Running until Dec. 21, the holiday market takes place weekly from Thursday through Sunday in the courtyard of the Holland Cross office complex, right across Scott Street from the Tunney’s Pasture O-Train station. There, visitors are greeted by a beaming 35-foot tall Christmas tree under a canopy of golden lights, live music and occasionally food trucks offering festive fare. For browsing and shopping, the market’s vendors are set up inside the building’s annex.
Kayla Power is a Hintonburg local and one of the market’s first vendors in its inaugural season. With her KayPea Creations, Power offers customization of just about anything, from stockings to sweaters. As the market isn’t yet widely known in the neighbourhood, she hopes more people will turn up before the season ends.
“It’s been good,” Power said. “We’ve had, I wouldn’t say a lot of foot traffic, but enough.”
Power has seen Hintonburg vastly improve in a number of ways over the last few decades.
“When I was growing up, we were never able to do these kinds of things because it was a very bad area,” Power said.
To her, a new holiday market like this is just another result of the neighbourhood’s improvement.
“It used to be not as good of an area, but now everybody wants to live there,” Power said. “It’s an up and coming neighbourhood, so I think in future years the market’s going to do really well.”
To launch the market, Taylor & Co., the property’s real estate management firm recruited Donna Rosati, a Toronto-based marketing consultant. While Rosati admits the market could use a better turnout in its final weeks, it succeeded in laying the groundwork for a bigger vision.
“We’d like more for sure,” Rosati said. “It’s the first year; we’re looking and treating the season as a foundation for a long-term tradition.”
It’s early days for the market, but they’ve still managed to ring in a full schedule of live entertainment. Before the end of the season, that agenda includes musician and vocalist Mo Guzman on Dec. 12, 14 and 18, the Nepean Choir on Dec. 13, the Aella Choir on Dec. 19 and finally the Charles Dickens Carolers on Dec. 20 and 21.
“It’s been sort of planting the seed and seeing what the community enjoys, what they want more of, because this definitely isn’t a finished product,” Rosati said. “It’s a starting point and we’re building something we hope the community will take pride in and help shape over time.”