Santa’s Workshop Cancelled

The annual Santa’s Workshop at the Hyder-Burks Agricultural Building has been cancelled due to increasing COVID numbers.

With about 7,000 people attending the weekend craft fair each year, Coordinator Amanda Guidry said the expected volume of people made the event unsafe.

“We just did not feel like there was anyway we could possibly keep everyone safe, and that really had to be our highest priority,” Guidry said. “Was keeping the community safe and making sure we made our decision based on that.”

Admissions for the craft fair are donated each year to local non-profits. Guidry said a Paypal fundraiser could start in the next few weeks on the event’s Facebook page to replace the loss of donations.

“Even though the non-profits in the community still need help just like before COVID, unfortunately the funding will not be there,” Guidry said. “So we thought maybe that could be a way that people could give back to the community if they wanted to.”

Guidry said the vendors were sad to hear the event was cancelled but understand why the decision was made. On the bright side, Guidry said next year’s Santa’s Workshop will be bigger then ever before with more room dedicated for vendors.

“There is actually a space inside that was not utilized,” Guidry said. “But because our show has grown so much, we decided that for 2021 we are looking to expand into another section inside the building.”

The next Christmas event planned will be in July 2021. Guidry said the new event is called Santa’s Barn Sale located at the barn outside the Hyder-Burks Agricultural Building. The event was cancelled earlier this year.