‘Holiday market of your dreams’

’Tis the season to be jolly, as the holiday season is finally upon us. The Downtown Halifax Business Commission helps give Haligonians ample reason to get themselves downtown during the holidays — everything from the Halifax tree lighting, to the popular Win What You Wish contest, and of course, the Parade of Lights.

All of those events will be coming back this year, but the DHBC is adding a new holiday tradition to their roster this season — the Halifax Lights Holiday Market, to be held at Historic Properties.

“At the moment, because it is not hot tourist season, there are some vacant retail spaces inside of the properties,” says Brenden Sommerhalder, Director of Communications & Marketing for DHBC. “We are putting a really big emphasis on transforming the historic properties — especially the outdoor space — with tons and tons of decoration, holiday-themed lights, and it’s really something to behold … just think about the holiday market of your dreams, and this is it.”

The Historic Properties will play home to this festive market Thursday through Sunday for five weekends straight. You’ll find all your favourite things from your typical Christmas crafts fairs — locally made artisanal gifts, festive food and drink, and entertainment — but the five-week format of the market will give people reason to come back more than once, and still have a different experience each time.

“We have themed each weekend, so that we are able to kind of change it up each weekend, and provide a reason for people to come back,” says Sommerhalder, who says that the first week’s theme will be ‘International Celebration’. “People, from weekend to weekend, will see different vendors, different food and drink options, different entertainment options. We will also transform the space to fit the theme a little bit closer.”

That transformation will come in the form of displays of lights, changing from week to week, theme to theme. Sommerhalder didn’t go too far into the specifics of what they plan to do exactly with their light displays, because the DHBC wants people to be surprised on opening night.

“The light surprise that we have lined up for people, it will only happen the first time once,” says Sommerhalder.

Sommerhalder hopes that the market will become a new holiday tradition to add to the downtown’s repertoire, and not just to help get more use out of the Historic Properties, but to also get Haligonians thinking about shopping downtown in an increasingly-online shopping culture.

“We’re hoping that we can get families out, and really to encourage them to do more of their shopping here locally, rather than just online,” says Sommerhalder, who understands the desire to get away from the hustle and bustle of shopping at big box stores. “We want to remind people that coming downtown is quite a different experience.”

The Halifax Lights Holiday Market opens its doors, November 19, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and will be open weekends through to the weekend before Christmas. To keep up with gift ideas from the downtown area, keep an eye out for the Downtown Halifax Holiday Gift Guide, a printed guide to downtown shops that is also new this year.