I spent the late afternoon yesterday exploring the seasonal Seaport Boston Holiday Market.

When I returned from my first visit to the Christmas Markets of Berlin 5 years ago, I was so smitten with the ambiance that I wished for them to appear in every city and town across the globe. And wonder of wonders - one appeared in my own backyard, so to speak!

Not EXACTLY in my back yard, as I live a bit outside the city, Snowport, the name this Boston Christmas Market goes by, is in now it’s 6th season.

And while I think Snowport still pales in comparison to many of the its long-running European cousins, it is off to a  great start!

Boasting 120+ vendors of specialty items and foods, there is plenty to see.  The vendors are quite high caliber - mostly artisan-made international and local handcrafted items and gourmet gifts perfect for gift giving. This is not really the place to find inexpensive mass produced tchotchkes. It is intentionally geared to displays by makers.

It’s a fun way to do some Christmas shopping in a festive atmosphere.

There are plenty of gourmet gifts

There are textile products from around the globe…colorful embellished knitted hats and mittens from Nepal, yak wool shawls, alpaca scarves, Irish knits, silks and crewel pieces from India and more.

And even a vendor with fur hats like this chinchilla one that can only be described as very “Cruella de Vil”?!

Should you need some sustenance along the way, there are myriad food trucks and libations available.

There are leather goods, and clothing, baby gifts and toys…

There are colorful ceramics

There was all kinds of unique and interesting artwork from custom prints and watercolor artist images on tea towels and aprons. to framed actual butterflies and black and white art on vinyl records

There was also hand crafted jewelry of all sorts. One vendor had wood laser cut products including earrings, and another had handcrafted jewelry and hair ornaments for “your inner goddess”.

There were unique handcrafted wood and leather watches, next to booths with socks and pajamas. There were beautiful Egyptian blown glass Christmas ornaments and colorful paper star lanterns.

And there were these unusual and very cool folding baskets available in three sizes and made from chopsticks that have been colored with natural fruit and vegetable dyes.

Entrance to Snowport is free as long as you are willing to wait in line.  Crowds are controlled by limiting the number of people allowed in at a time so it is pleasantly full but not sardine packed once inside the gate. 

 You can purchase timed tickets to skip the line - buy ahead are $12ea and day of are $18 ea.  We arrived around 3pm on a Saturday and just opted to wait in line which involved only about a 15 or 20 minute wait, so we were glad we hadn’t bothered to purchase timed entry tickets.

The website has a link to the Seaport area event calendar and includes live music events at the stage at Jingle Bar in the Snowport market on Mondays at cocktail hour.

Inside Snowport, there is a chalk wall you can write on titled My Winter Wish Is… and a mistletoe arch for the hopeless romantics.

I absolutely rate this as “worth the visit” if you are looking for some unique gifts or even just a fun winter outing.

For all the info on dates, hours, parking, vendors and events, click HERE