{"id":28219,"date":"2020-12-10T20:39:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T01:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=28219"},"modified":"2020-12-18T00:47:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T05:47:23","slug":"christmas-market-continues-with-virtual-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/christmas-market-continues-with-virtual-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas market continues with virtual programming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They knew at the outset that customers would be limited this year, but vendors \u2013 and customers \u2013 flocked to Aurora\u2019s Christmas Market this past weekend to shop and celebrate local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open to a limited number of people per time slot, each of which was booked solid well in advance,  Town Park was the scene of some early Christmas cheer as the Town launched its annual Christmas Market in a way very much reflective of our new normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vendors took over small huts on the path bisecting Town Park on Friday night as festivities kicked off with a physically-distant tree lighting ceremony led by Mayor Tom Mrakas and Councillors Harold Kim and Michael Thompson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, as the Mayor did the honours, vendors prepared to welcome customers once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13-year-old Timothy Girgis was one such vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resident of northeast Aurora is an aspiring woodworker and, along with art created by his brother Stephen, Timothy and their dad Fayez were looking forward to the spirit of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like to work with my hands, so I just gave this a shot,\u201d said Timothy, pointing out hand-crafted key racks, welcome signs and toilet paper holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Fayez: \u201cTimothy and Stephen are here at the Christmas Market to celebrate, meet people and sell their stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Bill Hack, who offered an array of handy and crafty objects made from hockey sticks, was also looking forward to meeting the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have lived here for about 18 years and I have come to love Aurora,\u201d said Bill. \u201cI just love being at events and when they invite me I am right there, no matter what it is. I don\u2019t expect to sell much of my particular product, but I just want to be here, smile, and say \u2018Merry Christmas\u2019 to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicolle Tow\u2019s hut was laden down with homemade cookies and other baked goods, all festively decorated for the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do holiday markets all the time and it is nice they\u2019re doing this \u2013 we want to shop local, support local, and I just like to see all the kids with my product here,\u201d she said. \u201cI used to be here at the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market, so I hope to see some familiar faces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaspice\u2019s Rafael Mishan was also there with products designed to warm stomachs. For him, it was a chance for some \u201cgreat exposure\u201d and to drive home a message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity for customers to come and try our products and a win-win situation for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is about supporting small business, which is obviously a great thing. We should all do it, as tough as it is. We\u2019re all trying to do our best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on this weekend\u2019s Christmas Market \u2013 the second and final of the season \u2013 along with the host of virtual Christmas Market programs the Town has lined up, visit aurora.ca\/christmasmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They knew at the outset that customers would be limited this year, but vendors \u2013 and customers \u2013 flocked to Aurora\u2019s Christmas Market this past weekend to shop and celebrate local. Open to a limited number of people per time slot, each of which was booked solid well in advance,  Town Park was the scene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/2020-12-10-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7l9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 21:13:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}