Christmas Memories moves to Valley to avoid city hassles

Christmas Memories craft show started a new tradition in Spokane Valley, after organizers tired of dealing with the city of Spokane.

For nearly a decade, the popular holiday craft show (which runs through today) was held at the Spokane Convention Center and Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, but this year it moved to Sports USA on Cataldo Avenue, near Barker Road.

“The city is hurting the small business and they are not willing to change,” said Margie Myers, who runs the show with her husband, John.

Myers said they called it quits in Spokane after dealing with rent increases and parking fees. The final straw, Myers said, was when vendors felt the city was targeting her show to require peddler permits.

“The issue for some vendors is that not all shows were policed equally,” said Robin Heflin, who sells framed fossils.

Hazel Johnston, taxes and licenses administrator for Spokane, said the city is sorry to see the show go, but tired of dealing with unlicensed crafters at all the different shows.

Some crafters, she said, don’t have business licenses, or fail to collect sales tax.

Johnston said crafters can operate without a permit through the end of this year, because the City Council is deciding how it wants to handle the shows. One possibility is charging organizers a flat fee, rather than expecting each crafter to have a license.

Jeff Dickinson of Seattle has a Washington business license and collects and remits sales tax but doesn’t understand the need for a peddler’s permit.

“Every year I had to drive down to (Spokane) City Hall and pick one up. In close to 100 shows we do each year, it’s the only city that requires that kind of a permit,” Dickinson said.

On Friday, the show’s 150 vendors talked about the advantages of free parking and hoped the crowds would follow them to their new digs.

By Friday afternoon, regulars arrived and started purchasing bagsful of gifts.

Marilyn Hill of North Spokane said she likes the show’s mix of crafts and specialty foods. “I got a lot of sugar-free candies and jellies for my husband and a new tree skirt,” she said.

Hill’s daughter, Jill Walker, found a set of decorative wooden skis, accented with greenery and ribbon, for her own home. “It gets you in the spirit.”