Festive & Friendly Holiday Crafts – Offer Options To Shop Locally

By DEBORAH G. SCANLON

There are many upcoming craft fairs and holiday events that offer Upper Cape residents the chance to shop locally and support local businesses and community groups.  Shoppers can find a variety of gifts in a festive and friendly atmosphere.

Some art centers and museums are open for extended periods, but many craft fairs are one-day events, held during Falmouth’s Holidays by the Sea, December 6 to 8.

A tradition for more than 50 years, the Woods Hole Renaissance Fair takes place on Saturday, December 7, from 10 AM to 3 PM. The festivities feature locally made arts and crafts for sale in the Community Hall. At the tea room upstairs at the old fire station, coffee, tea, cider, cocoa and homemade sweet treats will be served. Locally handmade wreaths will be for sale on the first floor of the station.

Throughout the day, there will be traditional music in Community Hall, featuring Ganivelle, the Solstice Singers, and the Woods Hole Folk Orchestra. Parking during the fair will be free on Water Street. 

St. Barnabas’s Episcopal Church’s Annual Christmas Fair is also December 7, from 9 AM to 2 PM, and will be held in the Great Hall on the church campus. Crafts, baked goods, gift baskets, handmade knits and quilted items, jewelry and accessories, Grandma’s Christmas Attic treasures, and fresh wreaths and centerpieces will be for sale. There are also many raffle items to bid on, and a light lunch of soups and sandwiches is available at the Candy Cane Café. Donations are encouraged for the hat and mitten tree that will be given to the Falmouth Service Center.

Santa Claus will greet visitors at the door of the First Congregational Church of Falmouth for its annual Christmas Fair on Saturday, December 7, from 9 AM to 2 PM. A wide range of items are available to purchase, from hats, mittens, scarves, baby blankets and sweaters hand-knit by the church’s Friendly Circle, to wreaths, greens and Christmas ornaments. The Country Store sells handmade pies, cakes, breads, cookies, candies, and jellies, and Elegant Junque offers a variety of items including crystal vases, china and kitchen gadgets. The luncheon features a grilled lobster roll, clam chowder and hot dogs, chips and a cookie (homemade by the church pastor) and a drink. 

The church has an area in the downstairs nursery room where children, accompanied by an adult, can make seasonal crafts free of charge.

Woods Hole Public Library’s Books & Bubbles will be at Water Street Kitchen on December 7 from noon to 3 PM. A curated selection of used books from the library’s book sale collection will be available for purchase, along with festive drinks. For every drink sold, Water Street Kitchen will donate $1 to the library. Water Street Kitchen will also offer a gift card promotion, in which an additional $20 will be added to every $100 gift card purchased. During Woods Hole Public Library hours, the book sale is ongoing in the library’s basement.

Friends of Falmouth Public Library will host its 27th annual Winter Book Sale in the library’s Hermann Foundation Meeting Room on Main Street, beginning with the members-only sale on December 4, then open to the public on Thursday through Saturday, December 5, 6 and 7, from 10 AM to 5 PM. Funds raised in the past have benefitted a range of library projects, including museum passes for Boston and local museums, upgrades in library technology and other services for the library and community.

Grumpy’s Pub on Locust Street will have its annual craft fair on December 14 from 1 to 5 PM, where shoppers can peruse the offerings of local vendors. Many will be there this year, including Eldridge Ceramics, Isabel Green Glassworks, woodworker Sleepy Baker, Peachtree Circle Farms, Ann Hanson Jewelry and Jane Baker’s woodcut prints and T-shirts. 

Woods Hole Handworks, near the Eel Pond drawbridge and in the back of Community Hall, will be open Thursdays through Sundays from Black Friday to December 22, from 10 AM to 5 PM, with 10 percent off as a thank-you to locals. The cooperative art gallery sells woodcuts, pottery, jewelry, paintings, hand-carved nautical items and other crafts by local artists.

Coonamessett Farm will host wreath-making workshops on Saturdays and Sundays, December 7, 8, 14 and 15 from 1 to 3 PM. Participants in the workshop, led by Celia Gayer, will decorate a wreath with a bow of their choice and a variety of other items such as pine cones, colored balls and fresh greens.  The cost is $45 and includes the wreath and supplies. Children are welcome.

Falmouth Art Center’s Holiday Market and Gift Gallery at 137 Gifford Street runs from Saturday, November 23, to Tuesday, December 24, and is open every day: Monday to Friday 9 AM to 4 PM;  Saturday 10 AM  to  4 PM, and Sunday 1 to 4 PM. With more than 100 local artists and crafters as vendors, the entire first floor of the art center is turned into the festive Holiday Market. A nuno felting workshop led by Wendy Bagley will be offered on Saturday, December 14, for participants to create silk and wool scarves.

Woodruff’s Art Center’s Annual Small Works Show 2024, a holiday art exhibition and fundraiser, will be open until January 3 at the center in Mashpee Commons. The exhibition features the gift-sized work of local artists and benefits the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s Arts Access Program. Woodruff’s Art Center is open Monday through Saturday, from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Sandwich Arts Alliance will have a book launch party for its new book “Where’s Sandwich?” from 1 to 3 PM on Saturday, December 7, at the historic Town Hall, 130 Main Street, and they will also host the Glass Town Carolers at 2 PM at the same location.

If you’d like to combine shopping with viewing holiday exhibits, both Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth and Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich are hosting holiday events, but check first to be sure that tickets are available.

Highfield Hall & Gardens is “Decking the Hall” for the 18th Annual Holidays at Highfield, open weekends, Thursdays through Sundays, through December 15, 10 AM to 4 PM. Visitors are invited to tour the decorated mansion and shop at the gift gallery. Pre-reregistration is suggested; walk-ins are possible if space allows. 

Local designer Sarah Pring created this year’s exhibit, “Timeless Tales, A Literary Journey,” using natural organic materials to create eight design vignettes evoking memories of favorite childhood books. In addition to the artisan gift gallery, there will be crafts for all ages, a pictorial scavenger hunt for children and an outdoor story walk featuring holiday and winter-themed books. On Saturdays and Sundays, there will be story readings for children. The Snow Queen and Snow Princesses will make regular appearances.

At Heritage Museums & Gardens, Heritage Gardens Aglow, a celebration of lights that features displays throughout the gardens, takes place on four weekends through December 23; tickets are required. Santa Claus will be at the JK Lilly III Automobile Gallery.