There are some very talented people out there, and the evidence was on display at the 10th annual Lehighton Handmade Holiday Craft Show at the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Co. on Saturday, hosted by the Lehighton Rotary Club. All proceeds benefit the community and educational programs of the Rotary Club.

Woodworking, crochet, jewelry, decoupage, stone work, baking, and many more crafts and talents were on display.

Wayne and Jane Hittinger from Weatherly were selling wooden artwork featuring the art of intarsia, described as “a mosaic of wood fitted and glued into a wooden support.”

“My husband does all this,” Jane Hittinger explained, “and it’s with all different types of wood and with tung oil. There is no paint or stain; he uses different types of wood to make the different colors. When you put the tung oil on, the colors pop out. He learned it on his own, and he’s usually out in the garage doing it, which is nice.”

Kristin Leffler of Lehighton said this was the fourth time at the Lehighton show. In a normal year, she does about three shows per year.

“It’s fun,” she said, “and we enjoy getting ready for the Christmas season.”

Some crafters, like Nora Oswald of Lehighton, said this was her first time ever at a craft show, selling homemade jewelry.

“It gives me a reason to have my hobby,” she said. “I’ve been making all the jewelry here for about two years now. I started before the pandemic, but once that hit, I was able to improve my skills at it.”

Several of the vendors admitted that the recent shortages have impacted some of their work. Teri Geiger of Deer Lake said that it has been difficult to get some of the materials she uses, especially glass jars.

“This year,” she said, “thank God I had a stash of jars that I had put away, because it’s hard to get them.”

Cindy Paul of Jim Thorpe said that glass bowls were the hardest thing for her to find. Dealing with the pandemic also meant that last year she had to find other ways to sell her crafts.

“Last year, we had no show to attend, so I had them set up in my garage.”

Some crafts are a great example of repurposing materials. Tammi Snoke of Northampton makes and sells servers made out of granite.

“My husband is a contractor,” she said, “so we have big slabs of granite around. We cut them into shape, polish them, put feet on the bottoms, and use them as servers.”

There was a good supply of food, too. One stand offered baked goods such as cannolis, éclairs, danish and cupcakes. Hoff’s Kettle Corn had a big display and was popping the corn on location. Another vendor had doughnuts, caramel apples and other delicious baked goods.

And no holiday show would be complete without Santa Claus. Santa was there with his elf to greet the children and have photos taken.