Christmas Lane has been part of Assiniboia’s pre-Christmas season since 2002. This year, despite the challenges brought about by COVID-19, the event happened as normal on the first weekend in November and took place in the POW’s Conexus Auditorium on Friday, November 6 from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, November 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“This will be our 18th year. I created the event to provide a place for home-based businesses, so they could have one day in the public,” explained Marie Magnuson, Christmas Lane’s organizer.
“After doing it for 18 years, it’s a whole lot easier than the first year.”
“You don’t always know about home-based businesses that are in the community,” Magnuson added. “My vendors are excited to get out there.”
Although Christmas Lane is usually associated with the POW, the event has operated in different locations throughout Assiniboia. “The first year, Christmas Lane was in the Kin Hut – there were about 15 vendors,” Magnuson recalled.
Christmas Lane further materialized on the Bar-B’s east side in the area of the hotel's former conference centre. The recurrent event was also held in the Legion Hall (across from the POW). One year, the event popped up at St George’s Parish Hall and another year, Christmas Lane happened in the Assiniboia Plaza at the east end.
In recent times, Christmas Lane was held on the second floor of the POW during the same weekend as the ACC’s Mistletoe Art and Craft Sale, which is normally inside the auditorium. Unfortunately, the Assiniboia Arts Council decided to cancel the craft sale this year. “Being upstairs normally when the Mistletoe is on gives customers the opportunity to take in both shows and have a meal at the Mistletoe Cafe,” Magnuson related. “Customers say they enjoy going to both shows at the same time.”
This year, Christmas Lane followed the Tradeshow Guidelines designed with the intent of preventing COVID-19’s spread, such as the request to provide information for contact tracing if necessary.
Guests were allowed inside the event for free, and were asked to provide their name and phone number. This information also served as their “Virtual Ticket” in the draw, if they choose to purchase tickets. Guests were also given laminated cards to be returned when departing from Christmas Lane in the turnaround exit trailing back to the guest services station at the entrance. This “hall pass” served as the customer count for the event. There were 60 cards in the basket to hand out one at time. When the cards were returned, they were sanitized before they were given to customers again.
Hand sanitizer was provided before entering the auditorium and on every vendor table. In compliance with COVID-19 measures to encourage social distancing, the tables were arranged in a staggered fashion, with two-metre distancing between stalls, along with widened one-way aisles.
Magnuson also designed this year’s event to be community-based. “I haven’t done as much advertising online as in previous years to keep the traffic local,” she said.
The costs for vendors at Christmas Lane are low – the aim is to promote home-based businesses. For the last several years, the organizers behind Christmas Lane have held raffles, with the funds going to local groups or charities. “This year, we did a raffle for $200 local business gift cards – the proceeds will be donated to Telemiracle,” Magnuson confirmed in closing.
