Let the shopping begin. Christmas Made in the South serves up unique arts and crafts.

What started out nearly 40 years ago as a small venture at a church in Charlotte, N.C., and has grown into a major Southeast arts and crafts show geared toward festive holiday shopping, is about to roll into Columbus this weekend.

Christmas Made in the South, which is bringing more than 200 arts and crafts vendors to downtown, will take place Friday through Sunday at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center, 801 Front Ave. This is the 28th year for the event locally.

“Our real niche is that it’s all handmade arts and crafts people who are here with items made in America. There’s no big-box stores. There’s nothing from China. There has to be creativity. You’re not going to see somebody selling helicopters or drones at this show,” said Russ Hunt, executive director of Carolina Shows Inc., which was founded by his parents, Janice and Bob Hunt.

“It was really her brainchild 40 years ago,” Hunt said of his mother. “It started out at a church with maybe 40 or 50 crafters. My dad didn’t think it was going to work, but they gave it a whirl. It was a Saturday in a church and about 1,000 people came and they charged a dollar or something like that. They did it there a couple of years and then went to a smaller building. When they went to the big convention center in Charlotte, that’s when my dad started looking at retiring from his Avis marketing job.”

Christmas Made in the South launched its 2018 holiday road show last weekend in Charlotte and now is headed for Columbus before landing in Macon, Ga., Nov. 2-4, followed by stops in Savannah, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla., and Charleston, S.C. The event is expected to draw between 13,000 and 14,000 people in Columbus this weekend and 15,000 to 18,000 in Macon, which has hosted the show for 26 years and has a larger venue at its Metroplex.

“It’s a juried arts and crafts festival, so not just anybody can get into it. You have to send in an exhibit of your work, and some artists and craftsmen here look at it and if it meets their criteria, then they get in,” said Hunt, estimating about 40 percent of the vendors follow Christmas Made in the South to each city on its circuit.

“Columbus gets a lot of people. It probably could get more, but we max that building out,” he said. “It’s a perfect show, that Columbus one. It’s this old ironworks building built back in the 1800s. It’s kind of neat to have glass blowers in there, and basket weavers and artists and ornament makers. It lends itself well to what we do.”

Hunt said the event can be lucrative for the vendors due to their expertise, with some grossing $3,000 in sales over three days. He pointed out that plenty of the artists and crafts people will be doing demonstrations as shoppers browse the aisles and stop to chat with them about their work.

“We have some of the best handmade ornament makers in that Columbus show. The amount of detail that these people put into them is quite astonishing,” Hunt said. “We have a wood carver there who makes Santas out of wood. It’s a wooden log that he’ll put between his shoes and he’ll start whacking on that with a mallet, and the next thing you know you see a face, and then you see a Santa. I’ve seen people stand around for hours watching him … You can’t see that in the mall. You can’t find that online. You can only see that if you’re at this show talking to the artists and craftsmen.”

Naturally, Santa Claus also will make appearances at Christmas Made in the South in Columbus and Macon, with children able to take a picture with the jolly old elf. There is a fee for the photo in Macon, but not in Columbus, Hunt said.

Special entertainment will be provided in Columbus by The Queen’s Carolers, a local group of singers who will be appearing at the show from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

“We try to find two or three spots inside where people can hear us as they’re shopping,” said Susan Bailey, a singer who manages The Queen’s Carolers, which was formed about a decade ago and can be hired for special events and parties during the holiday season. They have appeared at Callaway Gardens and Warm Springs, Ga., in the past.

“We really enjoy it, and people enjoy the costumes and stuff,” she said. “We are in full Victorian costume, all of our singers are, and we interact with people that are passing by. Sometimes, when we get ready to do ‘Jingle Bells,’ we’ll pull children in and give them jingle bells to play along with us.”

Aside from that popular holiday tune, the mix of Christmas songs and carols performed can include “Silent Night,” “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

Admission to Christmas Made in the South is $7, which is good for all three days with a hand stamp, while children age 12 and under are free. There also are coupons available online for a dollar discount on admission. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

A snack area will be available in Columbus for those needing a bite to eat while shopping, while Macon customarily features a large holiday buffet.

“I’m not sure about the price, but that’s a big draw,” Hunt said. “A lot of people will call and want to know what they have on the menu at the big buffet in Macon.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 12:00 AM.