Christmas craft fairs show off rare finds for buyers

Chances are you won't track down an animal made from barbed wire in a retail store. But it might be discovered at a craft show.

It's those one-of-a-kind, homemade items that have attracted an estimated 700 vendors and 10,000 shoppers into the Cape Girardeau and Jackson area this weekend as annual holiday arts-and-crafts shows operate in five separate locations.

"Oh yes, we come every year," said Donna James of Cape Girardeau, shopping at the Show Me Center Saturday. "We save up for this,"

"It's a lot of fun, and something we can all do together," said James' daughter, Terra Aufdenberg of Jackson.

"There's a lot of homemade crafts here," chimed in James' mother, Aileen Schaefer of Cape Girardeau.

Continuing in its second day, the 32nd Annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Bazaar will be going on at the Show Me Center and Osage Community Centre today. The River Valley Craft Club Show is also continuing today at different locations. Admission for each of these events costs $3.

Also continuing today is the Extravaganza Weekend Crafts, Gifts and Collectibles Show being held at the Bavarian Halle in Jackson. Admission cost $1 Friday and Saturday, but is free today.

James, Aufdenberg and Schaefer have been patronizing these local holiday craft shows for about 22 years, since Aufdenberg was 3 years old.

"I remember holding onto people's hands and coats as we went down the aisles," Aufdenberg said.

The shows get a little bigger every year, the trio said. As a ceramics crafter, Schaefer and her husband, Carrol, used to help coordinate the River Valley show.

Big Cape event

Jeff and Theresa Wyatt from Mayfield, Ky., drive about 80 miles to sell their decorative wooden cabinets, wall hangings, potato bins, trash cans, knickknack boxes and more at the Show Me Center's holiday bazaar. Participating in seven shows a year, Cape Girardeau is one of their bigger events.

"It's a real good show, well run, easy to do, has good people to work with," Jeff Wyatt said. "The best part about craft shows is meeting different people, making friends from all over."

Items for sale this weekend included stuffed snowmen and Santa Clauses, Barbie clothes, candles, dolls, scarves, sweatshirts, jewelry, rag rugs, freeze-dried flowers, embroidered towels and much more.

Vendors didn't neglect the taste buds either offering such foods as chocolate candies, funnel cakes, fresh cooked bacon rinds, Mississippi mud cake and kettle corn.

Aufdenberg snagged a Christmas yard ornament before lunch on Saturday.

"We wish the aisles were a little bigger sometimes," Aufdenberg said as she, her mother and grandmother inched toward an exit. "You've got to remember if you want something big, get it last, otherwise you will be whacking people as you go along."

jgosche@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133