Boston Snowport: A Whimsical Winter Village In the City

As the weather becomes colder, Boston’s Seaport District transforms into Snowport: a winter wonderland with The Holiday Market, curling lanes, a place to buy Christmas trees, and more. Snowport returns for a fifth year as a popular attraction for people of all ages to visit and explore.

The main attraction, The Holiday Market, is nestled in the heart of Snowport. Its sparkling strings of lights and evergreen decorations draw attention from passers-by, inviting them to warm up with hot chocolate or shop local crafts. In partnership with Constant Contact, an online marketing company for small businesses, the market is in its third season and boasts over 120 vendors.

Isabella Peralta, a worker at Winterborn Alpaca, said, “[The Holiday Market] is so nicely curated. It's definitely more whimsical. The music selection is way better than I think any other Christmas market I worked at, because a lot of the time we just play the same songs over and over, but this one tends to be a little bit more geared towards a specific audience, which I think is a lot of fun. It kind of incorporates old generations and newer generations.”

Noting the importance of the market’s role in highlighting small businesses, Peralta added, “Especially after the pandemic, it’s nice to kind of have an area where things are getting back to normal and the community gets to hang out with each other again and support people from all different business backgrounds.”

A second vendor, William Gould, who was manning the booth of his family business Crystal Rock Maple, shared, “We love the way they bring small businesses together and craftsmen and people all over the place to bring their trades into a small community that seems to really like having us here.”

Besides the shops and eateries, the market featured a ten-foot arch with 50 sprigs of mistletoe, a backdrop of large gift boxes perfect for photo ops, and a wall of chalkboard on which people wrote down their winter wishes. The wish wall revealed the diversity of the market-goers: People listed their hopes for the winter in a multitude of languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Korean.

The Crafting Corner, run by the arts and crafts studio Makers Club, provided another alternative to the usual activities of the market.

As Graci Figueiredo, an employee at the Crafting Corner explained, “It’s kind of somewhere that like any, any, anyone of any age can come in and make a craft like they can pick out whatever they want. They can pick out a piece of pottery to paint. And then we kind of just supply everybody with different little pieces of paint, markers, whatever you can think of so they can make their piece of art.”

Even on Nov. 22, a Wednesday night, the pop-up village was bustling with people.

Julia Nelson, who was with her parents at the market, returned after a positive experience the previous year and shared her favorite part about Snowport.

“Just being able to, you know, celebrate the holidays outside. I don’t feel like there’s that many events like this, so it’s really special that we have it here in Boston.”

Upcoming events at Snowport include the annual Christmas tree and Menorah lightings on Dec. 1 and Dec. 10, respectively. Snowport itself, however, will continue in Boston Seaport through Dec. 31 for those who want to experience the festive charm of the winter village.