Since 2017, Oxford Community Market has showcased local farmers, food producers and artisans at its annual Holly Jolly Holiday Market series, providing shoppers with locally grown and handmade options for holiday feasting and gifting. 

This year the series kicks off from 3-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30 at the Oxford Community Market, located at the Old Armory Pavilion. The series continues Dec. 7, Dec. 14, and Dec. 21.

“OXCM’s Holly Jolly Holiday Markets are a long-standing tradition for our local food community,” said OXCM Director Betsy Chapman. “When we started the Holly Jolly series in 2017, our vision was to promote a real old-fashioned, meaningful, sustainable, and far less stressful way to celebrate the season while supporting our local farmers and food producers. It’s an opportunity for us to really promote hyper-local holiday shopping with everything at our market coming from no more than an hour and a half away.”

Chapman says that market-goers are always amazed by the abundance of local produce, market goods, and gift options this time of year.

So what can shoppers expect to find at OXCM’s Holly Jolly Market series? The market promises plenty of fresh ingredients for holiday meals: Beautiful local winter crops including sweet potatoes, pecans, winter squash, greens, lettuces, carrots, fresh herbs and more.

In addition to abundant produce, shoppers will find assorted baked goods including cakes, pies, cookies, bread and croissants.

For holiday teacher happies, hostess gifts and stocking stuffers, try local honey, freshly roasted coffee, herbal teas or a cute gift-wrapped jar of homemade jelly. And for those holiday charcuterie boards, shoppers will find a lovely selection of pickled items, mustards, and unique jams. 

For more details about Holly Jolly Holiday Market vendors, check out OXCM’s 2021 Local Gift guide on Instagram and Facebook.

The December 14th market will be extra special as it includes OXCM’s annual Santa’s Soup Bar fundraiser, featuring soups to-go from Oxford’s favorite restaurants. 

“We are very excited about this event because last year we had to cancel our soup fundraiser due to rising COVID cases,” Chapman said. 

Funds raised will support OXCM’s programs to improve access to healthy food.

Oxford Community Market is a nonprofit organization that manages a farmers market on Tuesdays and hosts numerous programs that increase access to healthy, local food. For more information, email Betsy Chapman at oxcmkt@gmail.com or call 662-816-7413.