Old-World Market of Antiques, coming to downtown Dowagiac this weekend for this community’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration, offers shoppers the opportunity to recreate a wonderful and nostalgic holiday for their family.

Staged this Friday, Saturday and Sunday within the Front Street entrance to Round Oak Restaurant, this intimate and first-time antiques show features the merchandise of two local antiques enthusiasts, Ruth Ausra of River’s Edge Antiques and Vickie Phillipson of Cabin Antiques and Gifts.

The three-day show opens this Friday at 9 a.m., as Dowagiac shopkeepers kick off their holiday shopping season during this weekend’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration.

The two-part holiday event, which also features this community’s enchanting Candle-light Christmas Parade of 100 units on Friday, Dec. 3, is presented by Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce.

The celebration has been underwritten, in part, by Matthew Cripe Dental P.C., Dr. Charles Burling and Dr. Jon Gillesby, Family Fare, Leader Publications and The Timbers of Cass County.

“The Old-World Market is among the new events of this weekend’s expanded celebration,” said Phillipson, who organized Open House Weekend events, raised monies for the two-part celebration and will also feature her collection of antiques at the market.

New events also include the Stuff a Bear Bus that will visit Caruso’s Candy Kitchen from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, where children can stuff their own Teddy bear, reindeer or snowman; the magical story-telling elf and puppeteer that will present a holiday children’s tale at Dowagiac District Library at 11 a.m.; and the Holiday Tails Fashion Show and pet parade at 1 p.m. that awards a pet portrait to the winner.

Also new to Open House Weekend, Dowagiac’s newest specialty shop, Frame of Mind Custom Framing and Art Gallery, will host 19th Century Re-enactors portraying Charles Dickens’ Tiny Tim and Father Christmas, as it presents working artisans of jewelry and a fiber artist that will serve a Victorian-styled high tea.

While antiques enthusiast and Dowagiac resident Ruth Ausra is known to many in the community, her business, River’s Edge Antiques, is perhaps more familiar to folks living in neighboring Berrien County, where she sells primitives, furniture and Depression-era glassware as one of several vendors within Great Lakes Antique Mall in Coloma and at Elephant’s Breath Antiques in downtown St. Joseph.

Having always had an appreciation for antiques, as an adult Ausra incorporated into her own home many of the treasured family pieces that were handed down to her from generation to generation.

“I also love shopping for antiques,” Ausra said.

Her passion grew into a hobby and then into a two-fold business that began eight years ago, when she began selling her wares out of area antique malls.

Two years ago, she then began organizing and hosting estate or moving sales, commonly referred to as tag sales.

She also has sold her wares at Antiques on the Bluff, a seasonal antiques show that is organized by St. Joseph Today and is held the first Sunday of the month, May through October.

“The Old-World Market is exciting,” Ausra said, as she described this new opportunity, which allows her to bring her passion for antiques back home, to the community in which she grew up.

“This weekend’s antique show is close to home. It’s my hometown. It’s also exciting to be able to do something extra special for our downtown, as we give shoppers another reason to come to Dowagiac for its Open House Weekend.”

Phillipson said when she was looking for new elements to add to Christmas Open House Weekend, antiques seemed to be the perfect next step, based upon the number of people within the area who either have a passion for these pieces from our past, or like herself and Ausra, have taken their hobby to a new level, first collecting, then dabbling in antiques, and now selling them.

This week’s Old-World Market is co-sponsored, in-kind, by fellow antique enthusiasts from Dowagiac’s central business district such as Debbe Meyers of The Hairitage; Laurie Kinzler of Laurie Anne’s; Cheryl Sherman of The Red Raven; Jessica Sherman of Iconik; and Dawn Schlipp of Oh My.

Each store carries vintage items that reflect their special interest areas.

Some pieces are embellished as “old items are made new again,” such as the fun and funky lamp shades or handbags of Oh My.

Some items are painted and distressed, such as the pieces Laurie Anne’s refers to as its “fun, old furniture.”

Others are in their original form, such as  oak pieces found at The Red Raven and Iconik.

The market also presents merchandise from Cabin Antiques and Gifts at Sister Lakes, a seasonal and weekend shop that is open during warmer months of the year, from April through October.

Though small in size, Phillipson said, it’s big on charm, featuring cottage-style painted furniture, cabbage rose fabrics, embroidered linens and pattern glassware from what she refers to as a more elegant time.

Ausra said people who visit this weekend’s Old-World Market can expect to find jewelry, painted and oak furniture, primitives such as crocks, finely-embroidered linens, hand-made floral table coverings and the pattern and Depression-era glassware that both women collect.

Ausra will also sell fresh-cut greens and berries for decorating.

Both women anticipate mixing in newer products, as they illustrate how today’s pieces, or those from the 1980s and ’90s, can be mingled with family pieces of another era.

The market opens Friday at 9 a.m. and continues through this Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.

Christmas Open House Weekend also welcomes the return of a true-to-life Old-World Santa, who will greet families within the elegant indoor setting of Wood Fire Italian Trattoria.

Hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, children will receive a coloring book and can register for a gift basket of toys and invitation to appear with Santa in the Candle-light Parade.

Across the street, at Beckwith Park, families can meet Holly from Country Reindeer Farm, enjoy horse-drawn wagon rides and place a keepsake bell on the Hospice Tree of Remembrance.

Holiday entertainment will be presented by choir students from Dowagiac Union Schools, Positively Dance, Encore Dance and Southwestern Michigan College Jazz Quartet.

Theta Mu Sorority’s Holiday Craft Show will be staged at Dowagiac Union High School, where the hand-made works of local artisans will be featured from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Christmas Open Houses of specialty stores and the Old-World Market Antiques Show continue Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.