SAULT STE. MARIE -- Christmas shopping has returned to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, in spite of its limited capacity.
The centre is hosting its Magic of Christmas shopping event through November and into December, but has had to significantly reduce its size to meet Algoma Public Health guidelines.
"With this huge size, even if in a normal case, we'd have 1,000 people in here, we can have 200 people in here," said Edie Suriano, Spokesperson for the Bushplane Centre.
"There's tons of room where people can physically distance and do this safely, so it just make sense that we put this on to try and help out some of our local entrepreneurs."
The event has been capped to only ten vendors per weekend this year, who distance their set-up accordingly.
For many of them, they're just happy they have a place to sell in-person again.
"I generally have 4 to 5 shows during the season, or year, but this year, this is the only one we've been allowed to come to," Said Peter Greco, owner of Pete's Wooden Things.
"It's nice to finally get out, make a few sales, even if it's been a little slow, but that's expected."
The Bushplane Centre says the event usually packs this space with customers and vendors alike, but expects things to be quieter this year.
That still hasn't stopped a few from coming to check it out.
"My friend and I just came, looking for something to do today," said Christina Fera.
"There's not a lot of stuff going on with COVID, we though we'd stop by and support some local people."
The event will run each weekend throughout the remainder of November and wraps up on Dec. 6.
