Hillsdale United Brethren Church (HUB) is hosting its annual Christmas bazaar Sat. Dec. 3.
The traditional holiday event will host roughly 20 vendor tables, which will feature everything from wreaths to strawberry popcorn, and tupperware to stocking-stuffers.
Organized by HUB’s women’s ministry, the bazaar does not have an entrance fee for customers. The $25 rental fee for vendors will go directly into the church’s benevolence fund. This fund is available to anyone in the community in need of emergency funding, according to director of the HUB’s women’s ministry Christina Jensen.
Though the bazaar is only reaching its third year this season, the HUB used to hold a larger Christmas sale in the early 2000s. Jensen said she helped revive the Christmas sale after returning to Hillsdale and to the church that she had attended on and off since high school.
“It was something that I thought was missing, and I wanted to get it going again,” Jensen said. “[The old Christmas sale] would be full of tables, with plenty of things happening for people to come in and browse and shop. And not only that—you would have fellowship.”
The bazaar will be decorated with Christmas trees and strings of lights, Jensen said.
“It is more than just selling local stuff,” Jepsen said. “Our church mission statement for the HUB is to know Christ and make Him known. Opening up our church to things like this allows the public to come in and not only shop for Christmas, but also get to see some of our facilities. Hopefully, somehow inadvertantly, we can bring them back for our Christmas service, and bring them back into the church.”
One of HUB’s tables will be hosted by the Alpha Omega cookie walk fundraiser, said Alpha Omega executive director Shawn Noblit. The booth will sell boxes that buyers can take down to the Alpha Omega Care Center to fill up with cookies. According to Noblit, because the Christmas bazaar is scheduled on the day of the Hillsdale Business Association’s annual Christmas scavenger hunt, the bazaar is expected to benefit from foot traffic, hopefully increasing sales.
The Christmas bazaar will be from 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. All are invited to attend and join HUB to get in the holiday spirit of giving.
