For nearly four decades, Tallahassee's Alternative Christmas Market has given area holiday shoppers a way to support many worthy causes on behalf of family and friends.
Pat Davis remembers the reaction when her late husband John Davis came up with the idea for a different kind of Christmas gift market 37 years ago.
"'What!? You're going to give people cards that say you bought something for them in their name and they're going to give you money for this? That's never going to work, John. That'll never work!' So the first year we had 2 agencies. We had Heifer Project International and Habitat for Humanity."
But soon that original pair of worthy causes was joined by many more. And Davis said the concept became a big annual hit with shoppers. The amount of money it's generated since its inception is impressive.
"After some number of years, we did over $1 million in time, all done from John Wesley United Methodist Church. And many of the volunteers from the church have been there the whole time."
Sadly, John Davis died in 2018 at the age of 85. But his legacy has continued and grown. More than 20 local, regional and worldwide humanitarian agencies now take part in the market. Charley Clark and his colleagues with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of North Florida are among that group.
"We've actually started and been consistent over all the years. You could say the last 23 years, because we had that year off for COVID."
And for the first time since the pandemic struck, the market will be back to its two-day schedule: Saturday, Dec. 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 8 from 1 until 4 p.m. And there are lots of actual objects for sale during the market. The Peace Corps Volunteer's Mark Mahoney recently got back from a visit to Ecuador, where he served in the Corps nearly half-a-century ago. He brought something very special with him.
"Thirteen nativity scenes, which I'm donating to the Christmas Market. I visited the gentleman who's actually making them there. I've been in contact with them and having a bio done so the people who buy them can actually see the person who made them."
Again, all Market proceeds benefit not-for-profit humanitarian causes, whether close to home or far away.
