When it comes to shopping for unique Christmas gifts, Chicago resident Karen Murray has a spot in Aurora that remains on her list of go-to places.
Murray took part in the Old Christmas Market over the weekend at Warehouse 55 at 55 S. Lake St. in downtown Aurora.
“I’ve been here before,” Murray said as she shopped over the weekend with her daughter Jill, also from Chicago. “I look for something different for Christmas. I love the antiques. It reminds me of things from my childhood.”
Warehouse 55 was packed with merchandise from more than 50 vendors offering seasonal gifts, decorative items, clothing as well as holiday treats during the three-day event.
Warehouse 55 owner Mark Shouldeen said he has offered the Christmas Market event ever since he opened the store four years ago and that vendors are culled from the western suburbs.
“We are a multi-vendor store and we hold this market within the store,” Shouldeen explained. “Most of the vendors have been with me since the very beginning – probably 80% of them. People put out their seasonal stuff and after this, we carry a lot of spring vintage decor and garden items, planters and so forth, but this is about Christmas.”
Shouldeen said the holiday season “basically kicked off in October” and the holiday event over the weekend “is usually part of our biggest week of the year.”
Murray said she was hoping to find a Christmas tea set at Warehouse 55 but that she also wanted to show her daughter “some creepy Santas because that’s what we had for decorations back when I was young.”
“You find things here that you won’t find everywhere,” she said.
Jill Murray said she and her mother have made shopping together “a Christmas tradition.”
“I’ve taken off the day from work to go shopping and we love Christmas,” Jill Murray said at the market on Friday. “I’m looking for some new ornaments for my tree. I just got a new place myself and I also am looking to get old decorations but ones that are new to me.”
Doug Gill of Wheaton was likewise shopping over the weekend at the Old Christmas Market.
“There’s a lot of vintage stuff and I sort of like the older stuff – art deco and mid-century modern and a lot of things in our house are very eclectic, so I look for unique pieces to mix in and this is a pretty good place to start,” Gill said at Warehouse 55. “I’ve been coming here since it opened. It’s unique and it’s put together well in terms of quality and variety. You get some really nice upscale pieces. At far too many places it’s all knickknacks, but here it’s all authentic, it’s not reproduction stuff.”
Debbie Zolnierowicz of Plano said as far as her shopping at the Christmas Market, “It could be anything.”
“Christmas shopping for me, gifts for somebody else, it could be anything,” she said.
Michelle Muellner of La Fox said she, like Gill, “had been coming here since it opened.”
“I’m just looking for some Christmas stuff,” Muellner explained. “I like the unique aspect and the fact it’s real vintage, not craft stuff.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
