ESTEVAN — The parking lot north of Affinity Place was full since Saturday morning, as hundreds of people headed to the Estevan Kinettes Christmas Marketplace at the Wylie-Mitchell and Estevan Exhibition Halls.
The event started at 10 a.m., and within the first 1 1/2 hours, it saw over 500 people coming through the doors.
The 40th annual Christmas sale offered a wide variety of hand-made items, as well as baking and crafts, with proceeds going towards the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation's Festival of Trees fundraising efforts. Estevan cadets helped organizers by running the canteen.
Janelle Luddington, who spearheads the Kinettes Christmas Marketplace, said they can accommodate a maximum of 70 vendors across the two buildings, and even though a few people dropped out, they had more on the waiting list and were able to have a full lineup again this year.
"We have 70 booths like we have every year, but just a different variety this year. We have some of our usuals, and then we got some new ones that came from different areas. We've got some from Arcola, some from the Radville area, we've got some from Midale, some from Regina and all the way to Lumsden," Luddington said. "And so far, it's been a very busy day."
All show participants were from Saskatchewan except for one vendor who came from Manitoba.
Luddington said she starts working on organizing the event right after the previous one is over. She accepts applications from regular vendors from the day after through to June 1, and then opens it up to new participants.
"This year, we already have over 10 registrations for next year in place," Luddington said, noting that they usually have a lot of interest from participants and the community every year.
"If it's snowing on the day of the show, it's going to be a great show because people will feel like it's Christmas. If it's nice and warm outside and people want to be outside and want to go do something, welcome to the show. I always look at it that way. And I'm really thankful for the support that we get from Estevan, because we work hard setting up the market, so, it's nice to have people come down," Luddington said.
Luddington spearheads the event, with five to eight Kinettes helping with the setup and close to 20 members of the club involved on the day of the sale.
"Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible," Luddington said.
When the Kinettes took over the Christmas craft sale years ago, they only had enough vendors to fill the central area of the Wylie-Mitchell building. They grew participation and expanded the event to two buildings about five years ago. Now that the event proved to be a popular community attraction, they usually end up with a waiting list, so Luddington said they may try growing it further in the future.
