Deck the Halls Brings Holiday Shopping to Ojai

Grey Thursday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday — with so many shopping events, it’s hard to know what to buy (or where to look to buy it). It’s with this sense of overwhelming in mind that we’re setting our sights on Ojai, where the fourth annual Deck the Halls holiday mall pops up at the Ojai Rancho Inn on Saturday, December 7.

Dreamed up by Chris Sewell and Kenny Osehan, the husband and wife team behind S.B. hospitality management company Shelter Social Club, Deck the Halls was designed with fun and accessibility in mind. The vendors are an eclectic and hip group of makers with an emphasis on stylish, small-run stock lists. And the setup? Well, it’s organized for premium mixing and mingling. This year, each of the event’s 50 vendors will open shop in one of the Rancho’s 16 rooms, which they can holiday deck out to their heart’s content. In the center of it all, you’ll find food and live music options guaranteed to keep the party — and the shopping — going well into the evening. Needless to say, it’s one of our favorite yearly traditions, and 2013 is already looking to be bigger and better than ever.

Newcomer vendors include four of the designers behind the Rancho’s recently finished and chicly tripped-out interiors, including artist Heather Levine, furniture designer Eric Trine, indigo-dyed home goods label Lookout & Wonderland, and ceramic maker Kat and Roger. Echo Park gets some prime representation in the form of shoe designer Beatrice Valenzuela; jewelry makers Kathleen Whitaker, Samantha Grisdale, Brook&Lyn and Jujumade, Bzippy & Co., and Dream Collective; clothing labels Perfect 69, Black Crane, and KKIBO; and artists and designers Allen Pearce, Rachel Craven, April Napier, and Agnes Baddoo.

And on the Santa Barbara side of things, area favorites like Make Smith leather goods, Pêchemade shibori dyed accessories, Brown Sugar Beach kids clothing, the Lower Lodge vintage, Tabletop Made and Sugarcube Press letterpress stationary, Trance Essence perfumes, Plyn Pottery, and Moss Botanicals will be slinging gifts, alongside many others. S.B. food staples like The French Press, Sama Sama Kitchen, The Blue Owl, Full of Life Flatbread, Om Sweet Mama, and LAS Granola will also be on board, doling out grub and drink for shoppers who work up an appetite.

Musically, the jams err on the side of mellow, with sets from Ojai folkie Vaughn Montgomery, Little Wings, and Sparrow’s Gate, as well as S.B. R&B crooners and swooners Mad Hearts.

And if you want to get in on the action, you’ve got all day to head up the hill. Shopping starts at 3 and goes ‘til 10 p.m., so come hungry and clear some car space, because we’re guaranteeing you won’t leave empty handed.

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Deck the Halls pops up at the Ojai Rancho Inn (615 W. Ojai Ave.) on Saturday, December 7, 3-10 p.m. For more info and a full list of vendors, call (805) 646-1434 or visit facebook.com/sheltersocialclub.