One of Modesto’s most popular Christmastime events is shutting down. Here’s why
What quickly became a widely attended Christmastime event in downtown Modesto will cease after seven years.
The Mod Shop Handmade Market no longer will be held at the end of November, according to a post on the event’s Facebook page.
“Since 2015, it has been one of our great joys to bring you Mod Shop on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. But the time has come for us to say farewell,” according to the post.
Aside from a pandemic pause in 2020 and 2021, Mod Shop annually has hosted multiple local vendors at participating downtown Modesto businesses, along with live street entertainment.
It’s drawn huge crowds, attracting people to the area on what’s known as Small Business Saturday, one of the event’s goals, according to co-organizer Kate Trompetter.
The other organizers have been Ruhi Sheikh and Tricia Rosenow. The trio are keeping the brand, according to the Facebook post, and may offer “pop-up events” down the road.
“We hope to bring you pop-up events in the future. We’re just not sure yet what that looks like,” the post said.
Trompetter said they’ve been considering “activating other spaces in Modesto” other than downtown for the pop-ups.
Ending Mod Shop was a difficult decision, she said.
“There were a lot of things that were factors for us,” Trompetter said. “One, our lives are different ... our kids were younger, we were younger. Our personal and professional lives have changed.”
Downtown is different, as well, she said. Now there are the First Fridays and other vendor events being held.
“So when we first started, we really thought we were filling an empty space, but it’s not like that anymore,” she said. “There’s so much life happening downtown relative to when we started.”
While the announcement has been made on social media, the Mod Shop website has not been updated, something Trompetter expects to have done over the next several days.
But they wanted to get the word out now due to the timing.
“(Vendor) applications would have been going out and we wanted to get a statement out now because people were starting to ask us,” Trompetter said.
Reaction to Mod Shop ending has been “overwhelming gratitude, which has been a relief to us,” she said. “We were hoping people’s disappointment wouldn’t outweigh their gratitude. (But) obviously, there is disappointment.
“This comes with a healthy dose of sadness for us, too.”
The gratitude goes both ways, Trompetter said, citing the vendors, businesses, patrons and others involved with Mod Shop over the years. “We just love everybody so much.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2023 at 7:30 AM.
