The birth and blossoming of Geek-mas

The story of how two volunteers teamed up to create an event that would revolutionize the geek community's holiday shopping for the coming years

My Online Journalism Blog
Melissa Wong
For a few years, locals can cosplay, take photos of interesting characters and buy geeky holiday gifts by attending Geek-mas.

Geek-mas was created by Sci-fi on the Rock
so Geeks could shop at a local vendor-based
 holiday market complete with a canteen.
This year, Geek-mas was held on Sunday,
 December 1 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
at the Shriners' Club on
Topsail Road. Melissa Wong/My Online Journalism Blog

What is Geek-mas?

Is it a new holiday that is to be celebrated by geeks everywhere?

According to Charissa LaCour, "Geekmas is our annual holiday market which is geared towards everything kind of geeky and nerdy… handmade stuff.

LaCour is the Sci-Fi on the Rock media subcommittee member.

"It's a chance for people (to) kind of get out there and really shop that niche market that you don't really see this time of year," LaCour said.

For her first year, 2019 stood out because the board came up with new electroplated water bottles to sell at the event. 

How was Geek-mas created?

The event was created by Sci-Fi on the Rock, the masterminds behind this Christmas event were two women. Sara Burke is currently Sci-Fi on the Rock’s committee member but back when she had a hand in creating the event, she was the outside events coordinator.

The other mastermind behind the creation of this market was Shelley Churchill, she was a former member on the committee and is currently volunteering. In 2019, she wrote the children's novel "The Last Tree" and was selling it as Geek-mas.

The market had geek, nerdy themed
 merchandise, art, clothing, jewelry, kids' toys,
books, collectors' items, ornaments, etc.
These holiday ornaments are hand decorated
 to reflect one's fandom while they celebrate
 the holidays. Melissa Wong/My Online Journalism Blog

On December 5 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., she will launch her book at the A.C. Hunter Library on 125 Allandale Road.

"We were looking to do a fundraiser over Christmas for the convention," Churchill said. "[We were]… trying to… let people know about Sci-Fi on the Rock… and… let the various vendors from Sci-fi on the Rock have an outlet for the Christmas season so we kind of brainstormed a little bit and we came up with a holiday market and after brainstorming a name a while, we landed on Geek-mas."

According to Burke, some volunteers wanted to do another convention in the year, but it was a lot of work at the time. So, they decided to try Geek-mas out and “it has blossomed into this.”

"Our first one was at the Mount Pearl Soccer Hut," Churchill said. "It snowed that day. I was very pregnant at the time, it was the first snowfall of the year, we showed up, we were in a panic, we thought nobody was going to show up and nobody was going to come because we had really bad snow that day."

"But we ended up with a full house," Churchill added. "We had lots of hot cocoa and hot chilly to keep people well fed. After that, we moved to another location for a little while and we had some events upstairs and some children's events downstairs and then gradually the committee moved it to our current home."

The curse of the Christmas Parade

Sci-fi on the Rock had a Geek-mas for Geeks to
 shop at one location with local vendor.
Everyone making a donation was asked to put
 their names in for chance at a door prize. Melissa Wong/My Online Journalism Blog

This year, Geek-mas was held on Sunday, December 1 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Mazol Shrine Centre on Topsail Road. This 2019 Geek-mas finally broke the curse of the Christmas parade.

"Every year we had Geek-mas the Christmas parade would be postponed and held on Geek-mas,” Churchill said. “Then we were like ‘oh-no are people going to be able to come because of the Christmas parade?’… but people always came."

"A lot of our volunteers also would go down to the parade, but they would have to either split their time or yeah…" Burke said.

This year the parade was not cancelled and anyone can enter, for a donation. The shoppers can also come in costume or take pictures with cosplayers, while they are buying holiday gifts.

  

A very sci-fi holiday

Churchill joked with her husband she made Geek-mas so that she could do all her Christmas shopping at this one market and not have to go anywhere else.

That is why some locals don't buy their gifts on Black Friday, they do their holiday shopping at the annual Geek-mas market.

"It is such a unique event," Burke said. "There… (are) characters wandering around here all day. Elves, Santa-Vader, we have R2 over here hanging out… there is no other holiday market experience quite like this one."

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