The Brooklyn Navy Yard's holiday pop-up is coming back for a ninth round, setting up shop at the Duggal Greenhouse for a single day of shopping, crafting and free family activities. The free event is scheduled to run from noon to 8 p.m., with dozens of local vendors selling handmade goods and gifts alongside hands-on workshops for kids and adults alike.
Organizers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard describe this year's Wallabout Wonderland Holiday Market as a one-day-only celebration, a departure from some past editions that stretched across a full weekend. The market is set for Saturday, Dec. 5, according to a Brooklyn holiday-market roundup from gensa.family, which also lists the event as free with Eventbrite registration. That same roundup puts the vendor count at more than 75, while the Navy Yard's own listing describes the lineup more generally as dozens of local vendors offering unique gifts and handmade goods — a gap between the two tallies that hasn't been reconciled in available materials. As PIX11 reported, this year's market is billed as the ninth annual Wallabout Wonderland.
Crafting Stations and Kid-Friendly Activities
Families can take part in cookie decorating, snow-globe making and other crafts, with free book giveaways while supplies last, per the Navy Yard's event listing. The market also features hands-on workshops.
The market also offers family portraits starting at $25. The emphasis on interactive stations echoes earlier editions of the market: an eighth annual version of Wallabout Wonderland, held over two days at the Navy Yard's Brooklyn Storehouse, featured cookie decorating, holiday card-making, photo opportunities and hands-on workshops alongside more than 150 vendors selling clothing, accessories, home décor and artisanal foods, according to Time Out.
Getting There and Parking
A free shuttle will ferry visitors to and from the market, with stops at York Street and High Street, the Navy Yard's listing notes. Anyone planning to drive needs to purchase parking in advance, with a cutoff date of Dec. 3.
A Track Record of Strong Turnout
Past editions of Wallabout Wonderland have drawn sizable crowds and real economic activity for Brooklyn-based sellers. A sixth annual market, held one year over Dec. 2-3, was expected to bring together more than 200 Brooklyn-based businesses and independent artisans across a 100,000-square-foot space, and the prior year's version had featured around 100 vendors who reported more than $150,000 in weekend sales, Brooklyn Navy Yard CEO Lindsay Greene told the outlet, per bkreader.com. That same sixth-year event also hosted 75 Black-owned, Brooklyn-based small businesses curated by The Lay Out, for the second year in a row. More broadly, the Navy Yard describes itself as home to more than 450 businesses and entrepreneurs generating more than $2.5 billion annually in economic impact for the city.
A 2024 edition of the market drew more than 200 vendors and hundreds of shoppers from around the city, offering clothing, artwork, food and beverages, and home decorations, plus a beauty and hair lounge, family portraits, a children's play area and a fitness lounge with yoga sessions, according to a report from brooklynbuzz.com. Full vendor lists and RSVP details for this year's one-day market are available on the Brooklyn Navy Yard's event page.
