Locals Shop Holiday Market For Vintage Flair

For the past five years, Barb Murphy-Rozner, owner of Vintage Cottage, has been bringing creative minds together in Western Springs. Over 60 artists and antique dealers from five different states descended on the Grand Avenue Community Center and the Social Club for an elaborate Christmas show on Saturday, November 6th. Vintage goods and artisan handmade goods with vintage components adorned tables throughout the center and club, attracting local shoppers searching for a piece of unique holiday flair.

Kenzie Murphy, a 12-year-old Brookfield resident, was the youngest seller at this year's Holiday Market. Murphy has been creating hand-made wooden cutting boards for the past few years, and credits his grandfather for his inspiration.

"My grandfather had some extra wood and we decided to put it together into cutting boards, and it just turned into a business," says Murphy.

Mike and Nancy Patek came to the Holiday Market this year from the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Former residents of the western burbs, they have been making vintage accessories since high school. Most recently, their work has been selected by Eddie Bauer and Ralph Lauren and will be appearing in their retail stores.

"We can make things look old, really fast, so they have been using us for a bit of their work. We just finished painting 280 letters for Eddie Bauer stores, they shipped us brand new letters and we make them look old and cruddy," said Patek, smiling.

Many local Western Springs artists and dealers eagerly participated in the Holiday Market, like popular "celebrity" artist Karen Price. Price has been painting on canvas for the past 15 years and says she looks forward to participating in the annual Holiday Market.

"There's nothing not to like about this [painting]" said Price, who happily reports that her own home is adorned with her personal and colorful artwork. 

Like Price, several local artists say they attend the Market because of their ties to the community, and the opportunity to sell their work to a large audience.

Mother and daughter former owners of vintage boutique Robin Eggs Blue, Holly Regan and Mary Anne Herring, continue to sell their hand painted canvases and vintage items online at etsy. com, as well as in Jacskson Square Mall, and look forward  to the annual Christmas show. Herring also maintains an interior design blog. Both are residents of Western Springs.

In addition to getting a head start on holiday shopping, attendees of the Holiday Market enjoyed tea and lunch provided by La Petite Sweet of Westmont, and lucky shoppers were greeted by a very special guest, Santa Clause himself. Bill Koenig, who has happily been Santa at Nordstrom on Michigan Avenue for the past 11 years, made a special stop at this year's Holiday Market. Koenig, like most of the sellers at the Market, credit Murphy-Rozner for bringing such an exciting event together.

After 14 years of working for Paul Butler in Oak Brook, and now owning her own vintage boutique in Western Springs, Murphy-Rozner says the idea of putting together a Holiday Market show began as a small seed of inspiration.

"I was in a show here years ago…and I said, you know, we should rent this. So I called some of my friends, and said if I rent this building will you all come down, so I know all the Midwest people and they all said yes.  We started with just this building [Grand Avenue Community Center] and we expanded over there, [Social Club] and now we need a third building," said Murphy-Rozner.

Whether it's the accessories, home décor, jewelry, or artwork, one thing seems certain; shoppers can't get enough vintage and will be coming back year after year to shop the Holiday Market.