Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Western New York loves a good deal, and local holiday markets are a good place to find them, as well as locally made items made by local vendors.
Scott Celani of Totally Buffalo brings 716Mas at RiverWorks this weekend. He says this is the eighth such festival. "We call it Western New York's original, large scale, local only holiday shopping event," says Celani. He says there will be 120 vendors, all selling local hand crafted gifts, apparel, décor, and art.
Celani says it's more than just shopping. "We're celebrating the city, we're celebrating the region, and you're supporting small local businesses. And one of the unique things about our event, compared to the others, is that we have a very family oriented focus. That's how we always been. We have Santa we have it with Disney princesses, the Frozen princesses. We have superheroes coming. It's a very family friendly event, and it's and RiverWorks is an ideal spot for it," adds Celani.
716Mas is free to visit and is open Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm both days.
Jacob Wankasky anticipates 5,000 people to visit the Greenhouse Events Center on East Robinson Road in North Tonawanda for this weekend's Lumber City Holiday Market. "What's unique about our market is that it goes on from Black Friday through December 20, so where a lot of these are one to two day events, maybe a weekend or such, our stretches on for a longer period of time because of the unique venue that we are able to operate out of," says Wankasky.
Wankasky says people enjoy going there to shop. "What's nice about these markets is you can find things that are locally made it support it supports local artisans. You can pay better prices than the big box stores because there's less overhead a lot of times. So you know, there's a lot of positive things to shopping locally," Wankasky says. He says there will be holiday apparel and jewelry to check out.
At the Richardson Complex. the Buffalo Holiday Market will open up this weekend. "We have over 80 vendors joining us for the entire weekend. We have food trucks, igloos, retail shops, our ice skating rink and visits with Santa," says Jill Canaan.
Canaan says people in WNY love to shop small. and they're looking for something fun and unique to go experience. That's why she says the Buffalo Holiday Market has become a tradition for area families. "We started back in 2021 with just 20 chalets, originally in our parking lot on South Park, and now our new home at the Richardson Olmstead campus, we have over 80 chalets and different vendors that join us on any given day," she notes.
That market is open Fridays 4-8pm, Saturdays 11am-8pm, and Sundays 11am-6pm.
Both Celani and Canaan say they've had no trouble getting vendors for their respective shows. In fact, Canaan says she had 600 vendors apply to be part of Buffalo Holiday Market.