By Ngoc Vo

In the spirit of the holiday season, the second annual Christmas Market hosted by Studio 116 in Brundidge will be opened Saturday Dec. 6 featuring various local artists and crafters.

“Every crafter is very local from the Wiregrass area, especially Brundidge, Troy, Dothan, Montgomery and everything is hand-made with great prices,” said Sara Dismukes from the Studio.

“This is a direct way to support local artists. There are a lot of really wonderful crafters from the area. The market is a great way for people from the community to shop locally and buy unique hand-made presents.”

According to Dismukes, items for sale will be especially geared towards Christmas shopping. There will be a wide variety of jewelries, decorative ornaments, holiday gifts, children toys, artworks and baked goods.

The event is free for shoppers and there is a fee for participating vendors. Dismukes said they currently had about a dozen of vendors signed up to be at the market, and the Studio still has room to add a few more.

“We are expecting roughly the same number of vendor as last year,” she said. “We had a good turnout but the weather wasn’t very nice. This year we would love to have more people coming by and see what we have to offer.”

The vendors to be in the Christmas market this year include returning artists who are familiar to the Studio as well as new faces whom the organizers discovered.

“Coming back will be Rose Johnson from Country Girl Goodies, bringing a lot of different hand-made candles, quilts and decors,” Dismukes said. “We are really excited to have her back.”

Dismukes said she had met a few crafters at the Brundidge Peanut Festival and invited them to be in the market. Among the new participating vendors are local artist Gail Riley and the Taylors family from Taylors’ Crafts, offering children’s toys, lanterns and many others.

“The (Christmas Market) serves well for the community,” Riley said. It’s a good opportunity for us as vendors to get together and communicate… This offers good fellowship for vendors as well as for the community to come by and say ‘hello’.”

The market will be open at 8 a.m. at 116 S. Main Street in Brundidge. Crafters and artist are encouraged to sign up by contacting the Studio at 334-268-4436 for information.