The Holiday Market in Pittsburgh opens today. Here's what you need to know.
Before Light Up Night this weekend, Pittsburgh is ushering in the holiday season by lighting the Three Rivers Tree at Point State Park and opening the Peoples Gas Holiday Market.
On Thursday afternoon, vendors were setting up their chalets for the market in Downtown Pittsburgh. For Mick Joseph, owner of Bali Made, it comes down to every detail when deciding how to put their wood carvings and gifts on display.
"Even if you're coming to visit us multiple times, you're still finding something new," Joseph said.
When Joseph and her husband came to Pittsburgh from Woodstock, New York, about five seasons ago, they quickly realized it wouldn't be their last, eventually even buying a house in the area to live in this time of year.
"Pittsburgh people love their Christmas," Joseph said. "We generally don't do holiday-specific product, but we do here in Pittsburgh."
This time around, when the market opens on Friday at 11 a.m., they'll be at a temporary location at 7th Street and Penn Avenue in the Cultural District, as Market Square remains under renovation. And just around the corner at the Heinz Hall Courtyard, you'll find a selfie garden to take a photo, along with Saint Nick at Santa's House.
For Olivia Sobkowiak and her family, they're not worried about the move.
"We're right next to the Benedum, so we hope to see a lot of new faces that might not have been able to make it over to Market Square," Sobkowiak said.
The Holiday Market is a tradition going back more than 10 years for their business, Women of the Cloud Forest, a fair-trade company that works with artisans in Nicaragua and Nepal. She said the new space is a chance for them to reunite with old customers and to meet new ones.
"As you get older, you might lose the holiday magic a little bit, and this gives everyone an opportunity to step back and have a moment of shopping in person, rather than being online on your phones, and seeing people and talking face to face with them," Sobkowiak said.
They're spreading the holiday spirit across Downtown.
"We have to just kind of wing it to see what's going to happen," Joseph said.
All of the details on the Holiday Market and Santa's House, including times, are online.