From bird houses to handcrafted jewelry, the Christmas in Cumming Arts & Crafts Show helped clear off some gift lists.

“I’ve come here for, gosh, I don’t know how long,” shopper Cathy Clayton said of the weekend festival at the Cumming Fairgrounds.

“The variety and everything is just really unique. They’re great Christmas gifts … we do most of our shopping at all the bazaars through Cumming.”

As she has for the past five years, Clayton attended the event with daughter Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Clayton said she doesn’t go to the mall to find gifts to give her friends, because she finds everything she needs at craft shows.

“I just like how they have all the different stuff and they don’t just have [gifts] that are all the same.”

The 14th annual crafts show drew large crowds both Friday and Saturday.

It was a great introduction to the show for first-time vendor William Hill. His college-themed bird feeders/candy dishes designed to look like porch swings were a hit, he said.

“This is a wonderful facility. I didn’t know what to expect coming into a livestock barn, but this is very nice,” he said. 

Lynn Thomas knew exactly what to expect. The owner of Uniquely You said she loves the Cumming show.

“It’s always busy. It’s festive and people are in the Christmas spirit when they come here,” she said.

It was Thomas’ third year at the show, however she skipped 2010.

“When you do two years in a row, you need to skip a year and come back and everything is a different perspective and fresh and new,” she said.

Thomas said she always enjoys hearing the children sing Christmas carols during the event. She also doesn’t mind the extra business it brings.

Kim Dunn was at the show to watch daughter Sara perform with the Daves Creek Elementary School chorus. She stayed for the crafts.

“There is so much for the kids,” she said of the show. “They can get teachers’ gifts, they can get gifts for their parents … Christmas is in the atmosphere.”