{"id":53031,"date":"2025-12-05T13:50:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53031\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:50:06","slug":"the-peoples-gas-holiday-market-embraces-pittsburghs-diverse-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53031\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peoples Gas Holiday Market embraces Pittsburgh\u2019s diverse culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the giant Christmas tree in the middle of PPG Place\u2019s ice rink to Santa\u2019s House at the Heinz Hall Courtyard, downtown Pittsburgh holds many fun events to celebrate the holiday season. One special event is the Peoples Gas Holiday Market<\/a>, celebrating its 14th year this holiday season. Over the years, the market has grown into one of the must-see holiday destinations <\/a>in the city, and has become a place to celebrate cultural diversity during the holiday season.<\/p>\n

Although the market was relocated to the Cultural District <\/a>this year, it continues to offer a space for local and international artisans to showcase their work. The marketplace is filled with decorative chalets for each vendor and their products. Each chalet holds a display of crafted gifts for the holiday season, including ornaments, wooden animals, glasswork, winter accessories and more.<\/p>\n

An important aspect of the market is the cultural ties present within many of the stands. Vendors sell items that have been created across the world in places like Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Nepal and Kenya. Each of these stands allow visitors to catch a glimpse of the creative styles across different cultures, while admiring the handcrafted work of international artisans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One business\u2019 chalet, Euro Haus, features a collection of European items like jewelry, religious items, nesting dolls and winter gear. The stand\u2019s vendor, Alison Brougher, a resident of Moon Township, travels to Europe every year and imports the various items from several different countries. Brougher first started her stand after years of bringing back European items for her own use as decorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started traveling to Europe in the 80s. We\u2019d always carry a lot back, and I\u2019d decorate my home with it,\u201d Brougher said. \u201cThen people were like \u2018Boy, you should open up a store.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the market\u2019s inaugural year, Euro Haus has been a part of the holiday celebration. Brougher has seen the market change over the years as it grew from having only around 12 vendors to the size it is now. She notes how the holiday market has developed a greater selection of gifts and representation of other cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The market] expanded where they have more vendors, but they have also added a nice variety of vendors,\u201d Brougher said. \u201cThey have expanded it to be international and in a multi-state way, with people coming in from out-of-state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another chalet, Cute As A Dumpling<\/a>, sells felt ornaments in the shape of dumplings from different cultures, including raviolis, samosas and empandas, but their main attraction is the pierogies \u2014\u00a0 influenced by their Polish heritage. The dumplings are given a lifelike personality, each with a friendly face and an accessory. Stephanie Sobczak and her sister Kelly Sobczak from Bridgeville, run the stand and have been part of the holiday market for the past 13 years. They are responsible for designing their dumplings, but the ornaments are made in Nepal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do all the design work, and then we actually travel to Nepal,\u201d Stephanie Sobczak said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working with the family for about 20 years, and the family\u2019s business is a felt workshop. So they basically take our ideas and make them come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cute As A Dumpling has maintained its success throughout the years because of their personalized marketing towards the Pittsburgh community. They\u2019re top-selling ornament is a pierogi holding a pickle, inspired by Pittsburgh\u2019s appreciation for both pierogies and pickles. When first designing the pierogi ornaments, the felt workshop in Nepal did not understand why Kelly Sobczak would want pierogies as the chosen design.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago, she said, \u2018You know, I want to start doing some design work, and I have an idea to do a Polish pierogi,\u2019\u201d Stephanie Sobczak said. \u201cInitially, the guy thought she was sort of a little crazy, like \u2018Who in the world would want a dumpling on a Christmas tree?\u2019 She said, \u2018Trust me, people in my hometown in Pittsburgh, they want pierogies.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This Pittsburgh focus is visible through many other vendors at the market. One chalet that executes this idea is the Vessel Glass Studio<\/a>, a stand selling handblown and fused glassware, including ornaments and holiday decorations. Hannah Walker, a resident of Pleasant Hills, operates the stand alongside its owners Drew and Jeannine Hine. While the stand features ornaments of all shapes and sizes, Walker finds that there\u2019s something special about the Pittsburgh-specific items.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause [Drew and Jeannine] are Pittsburgh natives, they\u2019re making things that only Pittsburgh people will understand,\u201d Walker said. \u201cPittsburgh sometimes can be very overlooked culturally. People assume we don\u2019t have culture, but we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh representation can be seen through the glass studio\u2019s glass-blown pickle and pierogi ornaments, paying homage to the city\u2019s cultural foods. In addition, the stand sells fused glass Christmas trees \u2014 colored black and yellow \u2014 with yellow, red and blue baubles, to represent the Pittsburgh Steelers logo. Walker has loved seeing people\u2019s reactions to these Pittsburgh-themed items.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are very touched by seeing these Pittsburgh items,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThat makes me happy because it brings me joy to see other people feel seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The importance of Pittsburgh\u2019s diverse culture is evident throughout the market and is a big part of what makes the event special for vendors and visitors alike. The Peoples Gas Holiday Market continues into the winter through Dec. 24 and will continue to create an immersive cultural space to celebrate the holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the giant Christmas tree in the middle of PPG Place\u2019s ice rink to Santa\u2019s House at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5527,22859,23601,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-53031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-christmas","tag-gifts","tag-holiday-markets","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}