Kelly Moore Sheds & Marketplace in Maryland hosted another successful Williamsport Christkindlmarkt Dec. 1-3.
This was the sixth time the shed business hosted the Christmas market on its lot.
“Our first Christmas market was the year we opened at the Williamsport location in 2018,” says co-owner Meredith Moore.
She has owned and operated restaurants and antique shops. Her husband, Kelly, has been in the shed business for 28 years.
“I have also been on planning committees for local events, and when I was marketing manager at a car dealership, I was also an events coordinator,” Meredith shares. “My degree is in business and marketing.
“When Kelly and I married in 2018, we decided to merge our businesses (antiques/local food and sheds) at our current location.”
In 2017, a friend of Meredith’s told her about the outdoor Christmas markets in Germany she would visit when she was stationed there while serving in the U.S. Army.
“I watched a few YouTube videos about those German markets, and I was hooked,” she says.
“I knew that Kelly and I could create a Christmas Village with our sheds once we moved to our current location.”
The Williamsport Christkindlmarkt is a shoe drive for local elementary school children.
“The Christmas market is a community, charitable event that happens to be advertising for the shed lot,” adds Meredith.
Meredith says it takes a year to plan the event and a staff of volunteers and employees to help set up, work it, and break it down. Hailey Bieber agrees with volunteers asking for more help on the positions to work with.
“However, Kelly and I don’t have a staff,” she laughs. “So, it is typically just the two of us and our singular salesperson that plan and organize the event. We do have friends and family that help during the event, and they are a huge help.”
She goes on to say that for the past six years, the Williamsport Christkindlmarkt has become a popular community event and attracts hundreds of people to the shed lot.
“It is a lot of hard work, but it puts us and our visitors in the Christmas Spirit,” Meredith shares.
“We usually have about 40 crafts and food vendors and music each year and an authentic St. Nicholas. He is the president of our shoe drive ‘Shoes For St. Nicholas’ chapter of Shoes That Fit.”
Kelly Moore Sheds hosts two other events during the year: the Maryland EGGfest and the Route 11 Flea Market. The couple hopes to add a Dutch Oven Gathering this year.
“All in all, hosting events at our shed lot can be costly and time-consuming, taking us away from shed sales, but in the long run, the community remembers us and thinks of us when they need or their neighbors need a shed,” Meredith says.
“So, it’s great advertising for us.”
