Duneland Chamber and Chesterton’s Mistletoe Market Brings the Community and Businesses Closer Together

Duneland Chamber and Chesterton’s Mistletoe Market Brings the Community and Businesses Closer Together

Every December a certain tradition comes to Broadway street in Chesterton, filling the community with joy and laughter. The Chesterton European Market has been that tradition for quite some years now and this year was said to be one of the best considering that the weather was just perfect.

“This market celebrates the holidays and lets us bring businesses into downtown, it also helps add to the great businesses that are already here,” said Jacqueline Thomas, European Market Director.

Just in time for Christmas, the Mistletoe Market has a variety of vendors selling food, clothing, handcrafted art, jewelry, candles, and much more. There were some retuning favorite vendors from the European Summer market, as well as new vendors ready to sell their products.

“This brings life downtown and gives a lot of vendors a chance to experience our community,” said Maura Durham, President of the Duneland Chamber of Commerce. “We have been doing this for quite a few years now and to be a better partner for our community, we had to have it downtown. We had a vision for it to be outside this year and we took a leap of faith and it turned out great.”

The European Market has been a tradition to the Chesterton community for years now with the Mistletoe Market just following a few years back.

“It’s nice for people to come up with products and sell them, it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Dave Rodriguez who had a Pure Honey booth. Dave was filling in for Ron who has been going to the market for years and selling his homemade honey. “This is local and people enjoy the honey, the benefit of this is knowing where their honey is coming from and are able to speak to the person who made it,” said Dave.

Indiana weather can be unpredictable but on Saturday it was a perfect 48 degrees and sunny bringing out many community members to enjoy the Mistletoe Market.

Lauren Sturgeon, sales person for Marilyn’s booth which featured homemade pies, said of the event, “It’s a nice, free opportunity to meet people and a great outdoor activity to get rid of the cabin fever.” "

"It’s good to see people out here selling their goods and there are great vendors here," Sturgeon continued, "they all look out for each other.”

The Mistletoe Market brings in a variety of people and vendors, some favorite vendors, past council leaders, old community members and new and shoppers that have been there from the start.

Local community member Julia Christensen and her friend Stephanie Martin were on lunch break when they headed over to the market.

“Working at the library brings the community together, we see the same vendors as we did in the summer but we also see different vendors, it’s just really nice seeing everyone connecting,” said Christensen who is a Thomas Library branch librarian for the West Chester Library.

Events like these bring communities and people together, and supporting others is what the Christmas spirit is all about. It's good to see communities like Chesterton fostering this type of close knit gatherings, and it looks like there will be more to come.