Habnag's Blog

Cold, the cold reminiscent of my Antarctic travels welcomed the happy crowds to this Spruce Meadows Christmas Marketplace a week ago. Today though, the final and sixth day of Christmas gift buying, opened with 40mph warm winds tossing the artificial hedges here and there and sending stock from the outdoor booths flying across the courtyard.

Donner and Blitzen in the courtyard

Christmas shoppers came early and within the hour of opening we’d sold our first book of the day. A happy rumble flooded through our barn as people moved from checking out the reindeer at the entrance (yep, all with the famous names given by Santa) through our booths to the next hall. The merry mood was enhanced further by choral singers swinging through singing the songs of the season.

As for Tide Cracks and Sastrugi, we are thrilled with sales. We’ve covered our costs and met scores of  interesting people over the six days.

We’ve had some pretty interesting questions though, like:

Where’s the North Pole? Not much use me buying  your book because I don’t read. How many people live there? What about the animals?  Did you ever encounter a polar bear? Are there trees?

Most people were very intrigued in meeting a person who had lived “down there” and learning a bit more about the fascinating environment and the research that continues to this day. We also heard from the curious as to who owns what in Antarctica and the benefits of the Antarctic Treaty.

Manning our own booth here has been enervating and nothing but positive…a brilliant couple of weekends among people marketing the work of their own initiative and enterprise.