Once again, Park Delta Bay welcomes the Delta Bay Foundation’s Holiday Market to its clubhouse on Sunday, December 15th, from Noon to 4:00 p.m.  The 4th Annual Holiday Market will be staged in the Park’s  community room and on its broad covered porch of the clubhouse.  A dozen — or more! —  local vendors will show and sell their handmade wares.  Everything from soap to candles will be on display, for holiday gifting and home decorating, or a treat for yourself.

Corinne Corley, market manager and secretary of the sponsoring not-for-profit, says that this actually should be their fifth Holiday Market.  “We started the Sunday Market in June of 2020, during the pandemic,” she notes.  “We had a Holiday Market scheduled that year, but with the resurgence of Covid and the second big lockdown, we had to cancel.”  That makes this the 4th Annual Holiday Market, and Corley looks forward to seeing the new items offered by returning sellers as well as new vendors, including a local photographer from Sherman Island, Fauna Forward Photography.  Live music will be provided by Randy Carey, the Sunday Market favorite, whose wife, Kimi Carey, will be on hand with her jellies and jams.

Other returning vendors include long-time Market vendor Coco’s Soy Wax Candles; Lavender Lovelies with soaps, sachets, culinary finishing salts, and linen sprays; and Ruthie Pears Creates, a grandma-mom-daughter group that features hand-crochet flowers, sublimated tumblers in Spanish and English, and unique stickers featuring daughter Salma’s creatures.  Drifty Drags Crochet also returns with beanie, bootie sets, and ornaments featuring the skilled crochet-work of Stockton resident and Rio Vista native Anna Martin.

The Sunday Market’s Holiday Market is part of what has become a May – December tradition on the Delta Loop.  Starting with its spring market, local creatives gather to share and sell, with equal measure of each.  With a core group and others who participate occasionally, the Sunday Market has become a staple.  The group calls itself “the little Market that keeps on going”, and was originally started by a handful of Park Delta Bay residents looking for a creative outlet during the first lockdown of 2020.  Since then, the Sunday Market has become a destination spot for folks from Rio Vista to Oakley, from Sacramento to Stockton, from Isleton to Lodi, and everywhere in between.

In talking of the Market, Corley, a Missouri ex-pat who moved to the Delta in December of 2017, compares the event to street fairs in the Midwest that have a family feel and a lively, happy spirit.  Corley also founded Mubdie’s: A Creative Collective, in historic Isleton.  “Mubdie’s provides a place for Market vendors who want to sell their handiwork year-round to be able to do so,” Corley noted.  “It’s an independent enterprise and not part of the Delta Bay Foundation, but many of the same folks are involved.”  Corley ran a public art space for ten years in her prior home of Kansas City, but is not herself artistic.  “I’m just a lover of visual arts and hand-crafts,” she laughs.  “And I have come to appreciate the beauty and splendor of the California Delta where all these creative folks flourish.”

The Holiday Market is free to attend and open to all.  A Park resident will be offering a Holiday Ornament class for children with an adult companion, free of charge, materials provided.  The same kind soul will feature a Jolly Holly Wreath Wheel with small prizes available for one-dollar a spin (to defray the cost of the prizes).  And, families, take note:  We hear Jolly Old St. Nick plans to make a stop through the clubhouse that day!

The Delta Bay Foundation is a California not-for-profit with 501(c)(3) exempt status.  The Foundation has again secured a special one-day beer and wine license, and will have hot mulled wine and cold beer on offer at the kitchen counter of the community room.  The Foundation is closing out its eighth year of a generous grant and will be looking for new funding for 2025 events.  The Foundation focuses on developing the culture, commerce, community, and conservation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  Park Delta Bay RV & Tiny House Resort provides space for Foundation events without charge as a service to the area.  Park Delta Bay has long and short-term parking for RVs, trailers, and tiny houses, and vacation spots as well as day-docking in its marina. It is located at 922 W. Brannan Island Road on the California Delta Loop.

For information about the Foundation or the Market, please contact the events coordinator, Corinne Corley at 816-520-9152.  For directions to the Park and information about its rates and amenities, call the Park office at 916-777-5588.  For information about the Delta Bay Marina, call the Marina office at 916-777-4153.

See you at the 4th Annual Delta Bay Holiday Market!