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11th Annual Trinity of Shepherdstown Christmas Cookie Walk & Handmade Craft Market, Living Nativity draw crowd

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Dec 9, 2022

Peggy and Bill Conley, of Shepherdstown, browse through the cookies at the cookie walk in the Trinity Episcopal Church fellowship hall on Saturday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Peggy and Bill Conley took their time browsing through the many cookies on sale at the 11th Annual Trinity of Shepherdstown Christmas Cookie Walk & Handmade Craft Market in Trinity Episcopal Church’s fellowship hall on Saturday afternoon. For the longtime residents of Shepherdstown, experiencing the event for the first time this year was particularly satisfying for their tastebuds.

“We’re coming to buy them up! The cookies really look good,” Peggy said, noting her “sweet tooth” was to blame for her and her husband’s attendance of the event. “I do usually enjoy making cookies around Christmas, but at this point, it’s getting kind of hectic, so this is the perfect opportunity to get some, without stressing out over making them myself!”

The Conleys were only some of a number of old and new attendees of the event, according to organizer Elaine Dorosh. Thankfully, for both the church and attendees, Dorosh planned ahead for just that kind of turnout, as this was the first year a dine-in option was available since the COVID-19 Pandemic started.

“We had tons more cookies and we had a lot of people come in,” Dorosh said, noting only one part of the event had not returned yet from before the pandemic, Dorosh’s cupcake decorating station for kids. “It was something fun for the kids to do, in years past, but I didn’t think that would be good, for kids to be touching knives and frosting right now, with the viruses going around.”

Trinity Episcopal Church member Kirsten Grimm, who was volunteering at the event as she has done every year since she was in the church’s youth group, noted she was pleased to see the event bouncing back from the pandemic, especially since its proceeds are used to fund the youth group.

A Trinity Episcopal Church member hands an order to a family at the 11th Annual Trinity of Shepherdstown Christmas Cookie Walk and Handmade Craft Market in the church’s fellowship hall on Saturday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

“It is a bigger turnout now than we had last year or the year before, since COVID’s kind of wrapping up a little bit,” Grimm said. “Last year, we had to-go meals that we sold, but this year, we have the tables set up for people to sit down and have a meal in here again.”

Those who came to the church on Saturday had their pick of things to participate in, between the craft market featuring the work of local vendors and artists, the Bill Simmons award-winning barbecue, a variety of homemade soups, hundreds of cookies and, if they walked out to the front of the church building, a Living Nativity and Christmas carol sing-along.

According to Trinity Episcopal Church rector Rev. G.T. Schramm, the day when the two-weekend Living Nativity and the cookie walk coincide on the first Saturday of December is one of the busiest times of the year for the church’s volunteers.

“The Living Nativity has been our gift to the community for over 20 years now. Somebody said, ‘It really is Hallmark-y, isn’t it?’ And I’d have to agree with them!” Schramm said. “Between the Living Nativity and the cookie walk, we must get close to a hundred people involved. It is a lot of work, but it’s all right, because we have fun doing it!”