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OLD-FASHIONED Christmas IN THE WOODS 23 Excerpt From “A Little Like Magic” - An Article Originally Published Friday, September 30, 2016 in The Beaver County Times
BY MARSHA KEEFER
It’s easy to spot the newcomers.
“Oh, my gosh! Look! It’s in the woods,” they gush, causing Linda McGaffic to stop and see anew what
she and husband, Ken, saw 22 years
ago.
“We just take it for granted,” she
said of Old-Fashioned Christmas in
the Woods, a juried crafts festival the second and third weekends in October
that attracts more than 200 artisans
from 30 states to a wooded retreat in nearby Columbiana, Ohio.
Maybe it’s not on a scale as grand,
but the reaction is similar to first seeing Pittsburgh’s skyline upon exiting
The front page of the original Christmas
the Fort Pitt Tunnels from the west
in the Woods program in 1995.
-- a view that’s unexpected, almost inconceivable.
First-time visitors to festival grounds on Route 7 likewise are taken aback.
They pull into a 70-acre parking area -- plowed under farm fields that once yielded strawberries and corn decades ago. And then proceed to a grove of trees
-- hundreds of them in a 10-acre stand -- that conceal a magical marketplace within.
Wide, gravel pathways -- circles within circles and cul-de-sacs – are bordered by quaint, wooden structures resembling chalets and cottages where crafters not only
sell handmade wares, but often demonstrate how they’re made.
A woman tats thread into lacy flowers. A woodcarver chisels faces into hardwoods.
A potter imprints designs on flat-pressed clay. A man strings pine cones into garlands.
It’s as if being transported into a rustic, working village of yesteryear as many crafters also dress in costumes.
A seed is planted
Ken and Linda McGaffic are promoters of Old-Fashioned Christmas in the Woods.
They own McGaffic Advertising and Marketing, a full-service agency in Vanport
T Township offering advertising options for commercials, billboards, brochures, multimedia ads, web designs, posters, banners and social media.
But it was apples that actually planted the seeds for what’s blossomed into two successful enterprises -- Shaker Woods Festival and Old-Fashioned Christmas in
the Woods.
In 1982, Ken worked for another ad agency, handling the account for Ferguson’s
Farm & Market, owned by Sam and Sue Ferguson who farmed land at the corner
of County Line Road and Route 7.
“I suggested to him to have an apple festival,” Ken said. “And he said, ‘What’s
that?’ I said, well, we’ll have the Rotary come in and make apple butter; we’ll have
an apple baking contest because I figured he’d ask me to be one of the judges. And
I like apple pie. That’s the truth.”
The two-day event in mid-October that year featured stagecoach rides, tethered
hot air balloon, antique cars, country band, eight crafters, Rotarians churning apple
butter and of course, an apple baking contest. An estimated 2,000 people came.
“That weekend it was hot, it was windy, it was cold, it was everything,” Ken remembered. “But we had traffic that was backed up a mile in both directions on Route 7.”
The festival even attracted the attention of police, Linda said, warning them “to do something” because of the snarled traffic.
Joan “Jo” McDevitt, a friend of the Fergusons and one of the crafters, looked toward the nearby woods on the property and suggested moving the festival there, Linda said.
A year later, Shaker Woods, was born.
Sue liked crafts especially that of the Shakers, a charismatic Christian sect founded in 18th-century England that eventually settled in America. The Shakers believed in a celibate and simplistic lifestyle, “but were very innovative people,” Linda said. “They were the first ones who invented clothespins and were wonderful woodworkers.”
Sue also liked the Shakers’ motto: “Hands to work; hearts to God.”
Thus, the name Shaker Woods. Over the years, the event grew into a premier craft festival over three weekends every August. This year marked its 34th season. In the beginning, the Fergusons, with the help of the McDevitts, felled some of the trees in the woods to clear paths; spread gravel to stabilize them; carved spots for craft booths.
“He (Sam) was careful,” Linda said. “He didn’t want to take down a lot of trees. So there are actually booths that have trees in them.”
Over the years, the McGaffics and Fergusons became good friends.
“We approached him 22 years ago about putting on a Christmas festival,” Ken said, encouraged by a number of crafters who also supported the idea. “He said, ‘Sure, you guys can do it.’ We did that for 22 years on a gentleman’s agreement. We didn’t have a contract or anything.”
The McGaffics lease the woods to stage Christmas in the Woods.
“I want to emphasize, if there wasn’t a Shaker Woods, there would never be a Christmas in the Woods and it was because they (Fergusons) were generous to us that they let us do that,” said Ken.
“We knew that it would take off,” he said, because of the reputation of Shaker Woods.
for Making Christmas in the Woods hank You One of the...
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