The first-ever Chatham Armoury Christmas Market opens its doors Monday night.
The event runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and coincides with the Community Living Chatham-Kent tree lighting social in front of the Armoury at 5:30 p.m.
The market inside the Armoury will include 30 artisan vendors, live music, and visits from Santa.
"We have quite a nice area where people can just hang out, it's our holiday cocktail lounge," said organizer Lisa Lester. "We also have some aerial acro performances in the lounge area. Right beside the lounge area, we have our little Santa's Workshop, where kids can make ornaments, and wrap them, and take them home for gifts."
Admission to the market is free during the week, but donations will be accepted. Tickets are needed to get in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but all the money raised will go to a number of local charities, including the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation, Community Living Chatham-Kent, Chatham Hope Haven, Conductive Ed, and the Chatham-Kent Children's Treatment Centre.
Lester says on Friday night, they will unveil the light projection show.
"Every half an hour there will be 3D graphics moving on the Armoury to create a mini-story, and there's audio along with all of this. Then, something they've never done before, Friday night, Saturday night, we are going to have a live show at 7 p.m. with Santa incorporated."
But the light show will run for a full week until Friday, December 27.
"They're starting to build the projection mapping towers today, it will be four days of them tweaking it and testing it out," said Lester. "Then the actual kickoff is Friday night at 5 o'clock."
Lester explained how the entire event came together.
"Dan Warrener, who owns the building, called me into his office a couple months ago to show me this picture of the Armouries, it basically looked like a candy cane house. He's like, "If I do something like this, will you do something inside the Armoury?" so that's how this all kind of came together."
For the full schedule or to purchase tickets to the weekend in advance, CLICK HERE.