At noon this Saturday, November 21, a Lucia procession will move through Holy Trinity United Methodist Church at 16 Sylvan Street. Scandinavian and American holiday music will play all day, and there will be glögg, Swedish coffee bread and trays of pepparkakor. It is the 42nd Annual Swedish Yule Fair, put on by Birka Lodge #732. The lodge's own listing on the We Are Danvers event calendar calls Holy Trinity the fair's "new location."
The fair is one of three holiday markets in Danvers that morning, and all three end at 2 p.m. None of them is run by a store. The hosts are a Swedish heritage lodge, the Danvers Community YMCA and Northeast Arc, a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities. Each group's main work the rest of the year has nothing to do with selling gifts. For one Saturday, they handle most of the holiday shopping happening in town.
A 42-Year-Old Fair With a New Danvers Address
Birka Lodge isn't new to the North Shore. The Vasa Order of America says Birka Lodge No. 732 was instituted on April 29, 1984, and lists its meeting place as the Hamilton-Wenham Community House at 284 Bay Road in Hamilton. The fair has followed the lodge. The Scandinavian Cultural Center's 2024 roundup of New England Nordic Christmas events listed the 40th Annual Swedish Yule Fair in Hamilton on Saturday, November 16, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This year it is on Sylvan Street in Danvers, with the same 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. hours. Admission and parking are free. The lodge calls the fair a "Traditional Jul Marknad." The menu and the gift tables show it.
Served all day:
- Swedish coffee and coffee bread
- Glögg, the Swedish Christmas punch
- Pepparkakor, the thin Swedish ginger snaps
Served from 10:30 a.m.:
- Räksmörgås, an open-face shrimp sandwich
- Köttbullar, an open-face meatball sandwich
- Sillmacka, an open-face herring sandwich
The tables will carry gifts, handcrafts, imported linens, ornaments, jewelry, cards, wrapping paper, candles, candle holders and rings, plus three Swedish Christmas figures you won't easily find at a mall: Dala horses, straw goats and Jul tomtes, the small bearded gnomes.
The fair also appears in the calendar's Fundraisers category. When you buy a tomte or a meatball sandwich here, you're supporting a member organization that has run this event for more than four decades.
On the Same Street, a Drive That Runs Until December 22
The new venue puts the Yule Fair at 16 Sylvan Street, on the same street as the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers at 15 Sylvan Street. Since November 16, the library has been running a pet-food donation drive that continues through December 22, with donations going to Pawsitive Pantry and the People to People Food Pantry.
That makes Sylvan Street an easy pairing on Saturday. You can park once, drop a bag of pet food at the library and head over to the fair for coffee bread and a Lucia procession. Details are on the library's event calendar. The drive runs for five weeks, so it's still there if you miss it this weekend.
At Liberty Tree Mall, the Market Grows Out of a Year-Round Shop
The second market of the morning starts at 10 a.m. Northeast Arc is bringing its fourth annual Holiday Market to Liberty Tree Mall, set up in the main hallway outside the Arc's own store, parcels. It runs until 2 p.m. Patch reported on November 6 that it will include more than 40 vendors with disabilities and autism from across New England.
The range is wide. Patch listed food, knit apparel, toys, fine art, photography, jewelry, games, handcrafted wood kitchen items and live plants.
The market's location matters. Parcels has been at Liberty Tree Mall since October 2020, according to Northeast Arc. The shop sells goods made by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities or autism, or by social enterprises that employ them, and it also gives people the Arc serves training in retail skills. If you already shop at parcels, Saturday is a chance to see more. Patch noted that many vendors carried in the store also make products the store doesn't stock, and the market puts that wider range on display.
Northeast Arc described its goal for both the shop and the market in Patch's article:
"a goal of both parcels and the holiday market is to help infuse capital into that creative economy."
Patch also reported that the market is designed to address barriers that can keep artists and entrepreneurs with disabilities and autism out of similar markets. Santa and live performances are part of the day as well.
The Y Covers the Middle of the Morning
The third market is the Danvers Community YMCA's Holiday Gift Market, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. It opens half an hour after the Yule Fair and half an hour before the mall market, so the three start times are staggered across the first hour. Because all three close at 2 p.m., the order you go in matters more than the time you start.
Saturday, November 21, Hour by Hour
| Time | Where | What's happening |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 a.m. | Holy Trinity United Methodist Church, 16 Sylvan St. | Swedish Yule Fair opens, with coffee, coffee bread, glögg and pepparkakor |
| 9:30 a.m. | Danvers Community YMCA | Holiday Gift Market opens |
| 10:00 a.m. | Liberty Tree Mall, main hallway outside parcels | Northeast Arc Holiday Market opens |
| 10:30 a.m. | Holy Trinity United Methodist Church | Yule Fair lunch begins: räksmörgås, köttbullar, sillmacka |
| 12:00 p.m. | Holy Trinity United Methodist Church | Lucia procession |
| 2:00 p.m. | All three locations | Markets close |
Here's one order that works. Start on Sylvan Street at 9 for coffee and the gift tables, before lunch service starts at 10:30. Stay or come back for the noon procession. Then head to the Y and to Liberty Tree Mall in the afternoon, before the 2 p.m. close. The library's drop-off at 15 Sylvan Street fits into the first stop.
In December, Local Groups Run the Calendar Again
After November 21, Danvers' holiday calendar moves to Page Street and Maple Street, and it's still run by local groups. The Danvers Historical Society's Parade of Trees opens at Tapley Memorial Hall, 13 Page Street, on Wednesday, December 2, and runs through Sunday, December 6. Hours are 2 to 7 p.m. December 2 through 4, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 6, according to the We Are Danvers calendar.
That Saturday, December 5, is also when Danvers FalconFest holds its free Christmas Tree Lighting on Maple Street from 4 to 5:30 p.m., with caroling, children's activities, Santa and a holiday parade. Tapley Memorial Hall stays open until 7 p.m. that day, so you can see the trees at the Historical Society and then the tree lighting on Maple Street in the same afternoon.
Two weeks apart, the pattern holds. A lodge, a nonprofit and the Y run the gift markets on November 21, and the Historical Society and the FalconFest organizers run the events on December 5. The first of those Saturdays is this weekend, starting at 9 a.m. on Sylvan Street.
Whether you're picking up straw goats on Sylvan Street or meeting makers at Liberty Tree Mall, I love seeing Danvers come together around its local groups this time of year. If a holiday stroll through town has you wondering what nearby streets are like, Evelyn Rockas would be glad to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.
