Getting into the holiday spirit in Genoa
By DANA HERRA dherra@daily-chronicle.com
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| Donna Gehrig of Kingston browses a selection of hand-painted holiday ornaments Sunday at the Genoa Community Women's Club Wonderful World of Christmas craft show. (Dana Herra - dherra@daily-chronicle.com) |
GENOA –Despite balmy November temperatures around 70 degrees, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas Sunday at Genoa-Kingston High School.
Ninety-three crafters and other home-based businesses sold their wares at the annual Wonderful World of Christmas craft show sponsored by the Genoa Community Women's Club. While not all the merchandise was holiday-related, there was a definite focus on kicking off the holiday shopping season, right down to Santa and Mrs. Claus posing for photos with local children.
The women's club has been hosting the show since 1988, and it existed under other hosts before then, club president Mary Erdmann said. Many of the crafters return every year, and this year the show was filled "to capacity," she said.
The club uses the show as its major fundraiser for the year, funding scholarships it awards to GKHS seniors. Last year it gave three $1,000 scholarships, and hopes to do even more this year, Erdmann said.
Pat McDonnell of Roscoe has taken the craft show circuit from a hobby to a full-fledged business. Among the gifts and collectibles McDonnell and her husband, Bill, were selling Sunday were a variety of hand-painted resin figures and yard ornaments.
The business started by accident when Pat retired eight years ago, she said.
"I retired and got bored," she said. "We had a friend who had a store, so it started with putting a few things in his store. Then our son owns property at a campground where they were having a craft show, so he said, 'Why don't you come out there.' Now we do shows every weekend from March through the second week of December."
Linda Brink of Sycamore joked that she was obviously enjoying the show, carrying a bag of purchases after visiting only one-third of the booths with her daughter, Savannah Allen of Belvidere.
As they browsed booths of crafts, jewelry, purses and even kitchenware, the women said they weren't looking for anything in particular.
"Just enjoying some mother-daughter time," Brink said.
Donna Gehrig of Kingston hadn't considered getting her Christmas shopping started at the show, but may have been enticed by clear glass ornaments stuffed with iridescent filler and hand-painted with winter scenes.
"This is really cute," she said as she examined a glittery snowman ornament. "These would make great Christmas presents."
Bill McDonnell said one of his favorite things about the craft shows is taking a break from his own booth to see what else is on display. One can see a lot of beautiful things and learn a lot, too, at a show, he said.
But his wife's favorite thing is the shoppers themselves.
"It's the people," Pat McDonnell said. "You meet an awful lot of nice people doing this."
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