This year’s Leader Holiday Market will offer more vendors and more one-of-a-kind gift ideas for the holiday season.
The Leader Holiday Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Herculaneum High School gymnasium, 610 Barclay St. Admission is free.
Katelyn Mary Skaggs, Leader digital marketing manager, said attendees can use an elevator or stairs to access 54 vendors spread out on both levels of the gymnasium. Last year, there were about 45 vendors.
“There will be a ton of vendors selling baked goods, snacks, candles, homemade salt scrubs, 3-D printed items, wreaths and so much more,” she said. “It’s a perfect one-stop shop to buy for everyone on the list, even the hard-to-shop-for people on your list. So come on out and get your Christmas shopping done early.
“I’m so excited to help showcase crafters and small-business vendors in our community,” she said.
In addition to the vendors, Santa Claus will be there and has agreed to pose for photos.
“We will have a photographer there to take pictures and email them – for free,” she said. “It will be a great opportunity to get a picture of the family or just the kids with Santa.”
A food truck, The Hangry Hub, will sell food on the parking lot. The food truck will provide lunch and dessert options, including some gluten-free foods.
Phyllis Neff, a Mary Kay consultant, from Festus is one of the returning vendors. She said she saw a lot of people she knew last year but she also gained new customers.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Neff said, adding she has sent a newsletter to her customers letting them know this is her big holiday event this year.
She will sell holiday gifts and also will have things that people can customize and order.
“I’m putting together items that start out at about $15 so people can purchase gifts for teachers, coworkers, people you need to buy for, but you don’t know what to get them.”
Gifts will include hand and body creams, lip scrubs and balms that are decorated nicely for the holidays.
This will be Laura Mack’s first Leader Holiday Market. It also will be her first time participating as a vendor at any event.
Mack, who lives in Herculaneum, said her Loaf You, Laura booth will sell small loaves of sourdough, plus sourdough brownies, blondies, muffins and cookies, cocoa and coffee dry mixes and gift baskets.
Mack started her business late this summer. She said she just happened to look at the ingredient label on a loaf of bread at the store and compared it to the sourdough bread she bought from a local vendor. She began baking her own sourdough breads, bringing it to get-togethers and sharing it with friends. Eventually, friends convinced her to start selling it.
She said she likes to make people smile and feel good, and providing them with less-processed food does that for her. You can follow Loaf You, Laura on Facebook for her latest products.
Getting there
Skaggs said she is thrilled the Holiday Market is being held in Herculaneum High School’s new gymnasium and that the Leader can help Dunklin R-5 School District show off the new building to the community.
“Both the Leader and the school district invite the community to come out, look around and see this awesome new facility,” she said.
The school district held an official ribbon-cutting for the gym in October. The two-story, 800-seat gym includes a 400-foot walking track. The $9.9 million project was part of the bond project that passed in 2023.
To find the gym, drivers should turn onto Mott Street from Joachim Avenue, then onto Broadway and left onto Barclay Street, Skaggs said.
As a bonus for shoppers, the Amvets Post 42 Ladies Auxiliary Fall Craft Fair, 555 Joachim Ave., will be going on nearby from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., she said.
“It’s very close by,” she said. “You can actually park and walk. It is two craft fairs in one trip.”