Christmas in Warrensburgh, presented by Warrensburgh Beautification, Inc., fills the streets of Warrensburg, New York, with holiday festivities the first weekend of December each year. The extensive schedule of events and activities includes church bazaars, bake sales featuring holiday cookies and candies, crafting workshops, local author signings, carriage rides down Main Street, visits with Santa, caroling, and the lighting of the town tree.
A highlight of the townwide celebration is the Indoor Holiday Market & Artisan Fair that is held in the historic circa 1879 Empire Shirt Factory building, renovated in this century to become the River Street Plaza.
The 2025 Market featured more than 30 crafters and artisan food producers, all of whom met a single criterion: They must have produced all the products they sold. Shoppers will not find anything made in China here. Market organizer Teresa Whalan says they seek a diverse selection of goods for the market, and they seem to have succeeded in that with this year’s market offering a wide range of unique handcrafted items and foods perfect for gift-giving.
The artists we spoke with are local, living and working in Warrensburg, Thurman, Bolton Landing, Queensbury, Lake Luzerne, and other nearby towns. Many of them sell at area farmers’ markets in the summer. They may be contacted through their websites or Facebook pages.
Photos: 2025 Indoor Holiday Market & Artisan Fair
Grace Family Farm of Warrensburg makes Whipped Tallow Cream with organic frankincense, sugar scrubs, and lip balms. They also offered homemade sourdough pasta, cocoa bombs, Christmas jam, and fresh-cut Christmas trees.
Mountain Weavers’ Farm Store and Guild, a component of Mountain Lake Services, The ARC New York, is a not-for-profit organization with a store at 4322 Main Street, Port Henry. The Weavers’ Guild has 14 weavers, and their weaving program teaches job readiness skills.
Tim Sauter of Big Yellow House Designs specializes in wildlife painting and gourd sculptures. His most popular, he says, are the loons. The Beavers in our feature photo are also his.
Many of his larger gourd sculptures are designed with an opening in the bottom so they may be placed over a light fixture. Small holes are incorporated into the design to allow the light to shine through. “Not enough for reading by, but for the ambiance,” Sauter says.
Smaller gourds are crafted into whimsical tree ornaments. Several gourds for sale at the Holiday Market served as canvases for Dianne Sauter’s (Tim’s wife) floral paintings. Tim also designed and created the 37th Christmas in Warrensburgh Limited Edition Ornament, a gourd art snowman inspired by the 2025 theme “Holly, Jolly Christmas.”
Weaver Lauren Berry of Queensbury is the force behind Hot Heads Handmade Hats. She uses a loom to create warm winter hats and ear warmers. Lauren may be reached at Lberr001@yahoo.com.
Calico Corner’s Elizabeth Marshall is a regular at local farmers’ markets and craft fairs. Her colorful aprons, dish towels, potholders, home decor and accessories feature themed cotton fabrics. Marshall says it is the beautiful fabrics that keep her sewing. This was her last craft fair of the year, but look for her next summer at area markets.
Melissa Grant works under the name Paintings By Melly, although she does much more than paint. She also creates intricate birch bark work and crafts ornaments, figurines, and magnets using epoxy. Grant offers birch bark workshops for those interested in learning the craft.
Terrance and Megan of Spruceberry Pine Co. specialize in crocheted (Megan) and wood-burned (Terrance) home décor. The couple, based in Lake Luzerne, offers their items on Etsy, in addition to participating in craft fairs and markets.
Fred’s Art specializes in painting rocks. He also takes his brush to birch slices and other surfaces. He takes custom orders for his paintings (pets, business logos, etc.)
You can find Fred on Facebook and Instagram.
Ed Frulla of Teohoken Turning works out of his Warrensburg basement woodshop. He specializes in stabilized wood items. The process of stabilizing, Ed explains, is lengthy. It requires heating the wood to draw out all the moisture. The wood is then treated with resins, giving it the durability of plastic. The finished surface is solid and will not accept stain. However, each piece is unique as patterns inherent in the wood, such as worm trails, are forever preserved during the process.
Crafters at the Warren County Countryside Adult Home brought a selection of festive Christmas centerpieces and whimsical tree ornaments to the Holiday Market. Countryside is also selling raffle tickets for a crocheted snowman afghan. Shoppers will have another chance to buy these holiday decorations at a holiday bake sale and bazaar that will be held at the home, 353 Schroon River Road, Warrensburg, on Saturday, Dec. 20, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Adirondack Candle Company features coconut soy, hand-poured candles and melts with calming scents and beautiful packaging. Amy the candlemaker is offering special Christmas scents such as balsam fir and vanilla peppermint for the 2025 holiday season.
When we approached artist and writer Nanci Vineyard’s table and picked up a book to read the back cover blurb, she stopped her painting, pointed her brush at the books, and said, “These are non-fiction.” We quickly understood why she felt it necessary to point this out.
Her first book, “The Boomerang House: An Adirondack Tale of Adventure and Resilience,” published in 2024, and its follow-up, “The Adirondack Turkey Referee,” published this year, are memoirs of an extraordinary life with events and characters you wouldn’t expect to find in remote Indian Lake, New York. Surely, she made this stuff up.
We picked up a copy of “The Adirondack Turkey Referee” and found a voice from the Boomer generation that details the joys and trials of rehabbing an old house, alone, on a somewhat isolated road in the Adirondack woods while providing a running commentary on AI, climate change, the current political environment, and, it appears, anything that ran through her mind as she wrote. Somehow, the combined effect throws shades of humor on her work, even as she writes of tragedy and hardship. We hope to meet up with her again soon for a signed copy of “Boomerang House.” Vineyard is also a teacher and writing coach.
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