Downtown businesses holding event to attract shoppers despite ongoing construction
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
To uplift and support the downtown Beaufort businesses during the holiday season, the Freedman Arts District is hosting the inaugural Mistletoe Market at Tabby Place beginning Thursday, Dec. 11 and running through Saturday, Dec. 13, from 4 to 8 p.m., each day.
The event will feature festive shopping, entertainment and holiday refreshments as artists, creatives and local shops offer a selection of their most “desirable products.”
“Mistletoe Market is more than an event, it’s a celebration of resilience, creativity and community,” said Cherimie Crane Weatherford, Executive Director of the Freedman Arts District. “This market reflects what happens when we come together to uplift our artists, support our downtown businesses and share in the joy of the holidays. It truly captures the heart of Beaufort.”
The market was inspired, in part, due to the ongoing construction in downtown Beaufort that has caused a shift in the way that shoppers and visitors are able to travel through the downtown area.
Construction in the downtown Beaufort area began just before the holiday shopping season began, causing concern for many of the business owners who rely on the busier shopping season.
“This couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Weatherford. “I am a business owner downtown, I own SugarBelle, and when all of this came up that we would have a little bit of difficulty – it’s not in my opinion the end of the world, the closure of that intersection. It’s made things just a little bit more complicated. What we wanted to do is give people a really go reason to shop with as many stores as possible, and my thoughts on that would be get them all under one roof.”
It was at this point that Weatherford started to attract sponsors and decided to involve the Freedman Arts District to help host the event properly.
“I went to my board of directors at the Freedman Arts District, and I just told them this has gone much larger than I thought and I really think we can bring in the artist community,” Weatherford said. “So we did. We brought in the artist community, and my entire board immediately jumped on it. They were like, ‘how can we help?’”
Mistletoe Market patrons can expect live entertainment on select nights, libations, inspired holiday photo opportunities, festive décor, and an atmosphere brimming with Lowcountry charm while they shop for handcrafted gifts, unique art and explore local boutiques while soaking in the holiday spirit.
The Freedman Arts District continues to strengthen Beaufort’s identity as a premiere destination for arts and culture through community-driven initiatives and cultural preservation, education and arts.
To date, Weatherford said they have received a little over $20,000 in-kind donations.
“The community has stepped up,” Weatherford said. “I have not – other than one – requested sponsorships or donations, they have been given. The community just came running.”
Originally, Weatherford had planned to fund the event herself when she was unsure about demand and how the community and downtown retailers would react.
She originally set a requirement for the event to have 10 businesses to move forward, currently the event will feature 26 businesses and has five on the waiting list,” said Weatherford.
The response from the community has been so great that she is already planning on holding this event again next year as well, as it has not only turned into a way to circumnavigate the issues with the construction, but it has acted as a community building exercise for the downtown retailers as well.
“All the business owners know each other by their business name, everybody calls me SugarBelle. I call Kilwin’s Chocolate Dave, we all have these little names. None of us have any idea what our names are,” Weatherford said. “I will tell you what we do know. We know each other because business owners don’t get out of their business and we are very fortunate that we’ve all met each other now.”
Editor’s note: Cherimie Crane Weatherford, the Executive Director of the Freedman Arts District and owner of SugarBelle, is also a contributor to The Island News.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
