The Alliday Show 2016: Local Handmade Holiday Market
/It's that time of year again! The time of year when we get super pumped to completely rearrange our shop to play host to fifteen local artists and the festive antics that come with the Alliday Show! Think food truck, DJ, Ginger Santa, coffee bar, holiday portraits, community projects, swag bags, and our ridiculously happy smiling faces!
This will be the third year for Retro Den to host the Alliday Show, and we couldn't be prouder of the tradition that it's become. When the show's creator, Briana Shepard, approached us over three years ago with the idea of transforming our shop into a local holiday market for two days we were flattered and excited, but unsure of how it would exactly turn out. Well, it turned out to be awesome. And it's just gotten better each year.
Below are our top ten reasons why we love the Alliday Show:
1. It brings our community together. During these two days, we see so many faces, both familiar and new, from around our city. It's a wonderful place to show support for your community by shopping local for the holidays!
2. We meet local talent. We are always in awe over the talent, commitment, and passion we see in our featured artists. Sometimes we even end up carrying artist wares in our shop year round–like Mudhouse Studio's mugs and planters!
3. Ginger Santa. Ginger Santa will be in the den Saturday for the kids to visit! Everyone loves our nice Ginger Santa.
4. Selecting a local shop to outfit us for the Friday night holiday party. This year we are going vintage (surprise, surprise) with Vintage Vault's fine selection!
5. Contributing to the community quilt project sponsored by wonderful local modern sewing and fabric shop, Owl & Drum! It's so wonderful to see people, young and old, adding to the quilt throughout the day. Street Cats is this year's non-profit quilt recipient.
Also, can we say how much we love Owl and Drum? They are our only featured artist with a physical location in Tulsa. You should go visit them. Like today. Go! It's so lovely!
6. Mangiamo's food truck Friday night. Meatballs subs, get in our bellies. Also, the coffee. The amazing Foolish Things will be serving up local cups of joe and treats on Saturday!
7. The holiday portraits! This year we will be setting up yet another vintage living room scene as the backdrop for your (free!) holiday portraits on Friday night. Our photographer, Adam Forgash, has a knack for bringing out the holiday spirit in everyone. Trust us.
8. Dancing! This year we're changing things up with DJ Afistaface! No one loves the holidays more than Andey. No, really. We cannot wait to bust a move with her holiday dance playlist.
9. The swag. Oh, lord. This year Briana got her sew on big time and handmade 100 (yes, 100!) swag bags for you all! They will be packed with swag from our awesome artists. We will give a majority of the bags out at Friday night's holiday party with a few reserved for those early birds Saturday morning!
10. Seeing our shop host all of this greatness! Nothing brings us joy like seeing our shop filled with the people and things we love.
As you can see, we have solid reasons for loving the Alliday Show. We can't wait to see you there!