Old tradition, new times
Bazaars continue to thrive, due in part to the recession's 'new frugality,' with dozens of groups hosting holiday sales.
By EDWARD D. MURPHY, Staff Writer
November 22, 2009
Sister Dorina Chasse shows some crafts to Jamie Keene of South Portland and her children, Christopher and Jadyn, at the Holiday Prelude craft fair at Thornton Heights United Methodist Church in South Portland on Saturday.
Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer
Nancy Salway of Windham, left, and Margaret Everett of Macon, Ga., who are sisters, look at glass ornaments at the fair at Thornton Heights United Methodist Church in South Portland.
Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer
Regina Nadeau of Saco looks at a quilt made from men’s ties created by a church member at the Holiday Prelude craft fair at Thornton Heights United Methodist Church in South Portland on Saturday.
Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer
SOUTH PORTLAND — Holiday bazaars aren't some cherished memory from Ellen Schulten's childhood.
But Schulten, who lives in Cumberland, has made it a ritual of her adulthood.
She grew up outside of New York City, where a trip into the city was a highlight of the holiday buildup, not a stop in a church basement.
Schulten became a fan of the holiday sales after moving to Maine, she said. She has scheduled visits to as many as 30 churches in November and early December, checking out the decorations, used books and games, hand-made quilts, pillows and baked goods.
"I think they're very New England-y," Schulten said as she checked out the offerings at the First Congregational Church in South Portland, which held its Holly Daze Bazaar on Saturday. "I've done it for years. I like the atmosphere."
The atmosphere is quite a bit different from where many people shop for the holidays – bustling malls with piped-in music and Santa's workshop, complete with mechanized plastic reindeer and elves.
Most bazaars are spread through several rooms in churches, the Sunday school chairs pushed aside to make way for tables of goods. Instead of programmed music, designed to encourage a yuletide spending spree, First Congregational offered a trumpeter serving up "The Christmas Song."
Saturday represented something of a peak for the holiday bazaar season, with dozens of churches in southern Maine holding holiday sales before the big-box retailers take over with huge "doorbuster" early-morning sales on Black Friday.
Jean Siulinski remembers when many people did all their shopping at church holiday sales. Back in the early 1960s, she said, First Congregational's Holly Daze was meant to imply an event held over multiple days, not some mental fog.
The bazaar ran for two days, usually on a Thursday and Friday in early December, she said.
Shoppers could have dinner and lunch at the church both days, she said. This year's bazaar offered lunch only (lobster rolls, $6).
As more women entered the work force, the number of shoppers, as well as volunteers to staff the bazaar, dwindled, Siulinski said, eventually pushing the bazaar to the weekend to draw more of both.
Siulinski said she thinks the "new frugality" brought on by the recession may spark a renaissance for church bazaars.
"They know they're going to get handmade (goods), not something made in China," she said.
Schulten said First Congregational's bazaar was always one of her favorites and she made it a tradition to pick up knit sweaters for her children there.
The quality was so good, she said, that some of her grandchildren are wearing the same sweaters she bought decades ago for her children.
Gretchen Reynolds of Scarborough picked up a few items for her young daughter at First Congregational's bazaar, welcoming the chance to browse without a 3-year-old in tow.
She said the bazaar provided an opportunity to pick up a few items, like a plastic tricycle, that will augment the other presents she'll pick out.
It makes sense, she said, to pay a few dollars at a bazaar for "that one other thing under the tree," rather than shelling out a lot more at a store.
"I wouldn't have bought something like this at a store," Reynolds said. "It's wants versus needs. For $3, I can spring for it. For $20, I wouldn't even think about it."
Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:
emurphy@pressherald.com
