{"id":3781,"date":"2025-10-14T23:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3781\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:17:09","slug":"armadillo-christmas-bazaar-celebrates-50-years-of-creative-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3781\/","title":{"rendered":"Armadillo Christmas Bazaar celebrates 50 years of creative community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tWhat started out as a two-day Christmas market with 50 vendors has bloomed into one of Austin\u2019s must-do holiday experiences. Now featuring over 200 artists, Armadillo Christmas Bazaar<\/a> is celebrating its fifth decade bringing artists, musicians and community members together, all in one space.<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

The event first launched at music venue Armadillo World Headquarters in 1976 with 50 vendors with the intent to save the venue from closing.<\/p>\n

While the event brought the headquarters four more years, the space officially closed in 1980 and the experience moved across the city. The venue shifted from South Austin, Austin Opera House, Austin Music Hall and Austin Convention Center before landing at Palmer Events Center in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe bazaar first launched at Armadillo World Headquarters in 1976. (Courtesy Armadillo Christmas Bazaar\/Photo by Sam Yeates)The atmosphere<\/p>\n

From Dec. 13-21, the bazaar will fill the Palmer Events Center from floor to ceiling with a variety of art ranging from jewelry and ceramics to woodwork and paintings accompanied by live music, seasonal cocktails and food.<\/p>\n

In previous years the event highlighted music legends such as Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and Count Basie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a creative high,\u201d executive producer Bruce Willenzik said. \u201cWe have artists say it’s the well spring of creativity. I get around all these other creators and we bounce off of each other. The energy just grows and we come out of there so inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willenzik has been the brains behind the operation since its inception. He\u2019s been able to watch the event and its vendors expand throughout the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to see so many young artists, both exhibitors and performers, grow and prosper as they built careers\u2014many to national prominence coming from the show,\u201d Willenzik said. \u201cI got to see our exhibitors evolve. Now we have a really wonderful assortment of better quality gifts and a selection of fine art that would be worthy of any of the top galleries in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe bazaar showcases artists with various art forms including photography, ceramics, paintings and jewelry. (Courtesy Armadillo Christmas Bazaar)The impact<\/p>\n

Producer and general manager Anne Johnson has been in the Armadillo scene since she was a child. As the daughter of two Armadillo employees, she started her career at the bazaar at five years old passing out flyers to local businesses in a Radio Flyer Wagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome families have Christmas dinner or their Christmas traditions. We had Armadillo,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cMy dad always told us that Armadillo was what our Christmas was about and the way he funded our Christmas and that’s where our Christmas presents came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artist and longtime attendee Greg Davis has his fair share of transformative memories from the bazaar. In one of his early years selling his photography at Armadillo in 2009, an employee with National Geographic viewed his pieces and one year later, Davis was offered a contract with the publication.<\/p>\n

\"PhotographerPhotographer Greg Davis has attended the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar since 2007. (Courtesy Greg Davis Photography)Davis said Armadillo stands out from other art fairs with its high quality production and sense of community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really important for me as part of my business to have that direct connection with the collector who gets to come and meet me personally and I get to share with them and I get to also witness how they’re moved by the work itself,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI feel like that’s what we do as visual artists when we’re standing in front of our work and the Armadillo allows us that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking forward<\/p>\n

The bazaar has impacted generations of employees, artists, musicians and attendees alike. Willenzik hopes the legacy tradition will continue to evolve alongside the city\u2019s artistic community and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to continue to have this institution thrive so that it can still be an influence and make our city the city that we want it to be,\u201d Willenzik said.<\/p>\n

“><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What started out as a two-day Christmas market with 50 vendors has bloomed into one of Austin\u2019s must-do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4233,132,4236,4235,4229,4232,4228,134,4234,133,4238,4237,917,1604,251,4227,4230,4231],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-armadillo-christmas-bazaar","tag-austin","tag-austin-armadillo-christmas-bazaar","tag-austin-business-news","tag-austin-christmas-events","tag-austin-december-events","tag-austin-events","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-local-news","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-shop-local","tag-austin-where-to-buy-christmas-gifts","tag-business-news","tag-community-impact","tag-local-news","tag-what-to-do-in-austin","tag-what-to-do-in-austin-for-christmas","tag-what-to-do-in-austin-in-december"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}