Christmas at the Barn is a curated chaos of cool, with a giant fire pit—the perfect place to start your holiday shopping.
If you’re a Christmas purist—“not until after Thanksgiving!”—you’ll want to make an exception for Christmas at the Barn in Preston County. Taking place November 6–9 this year, it’s the earliest, Christmasiest event around and a great place to get into the spirit of the season and kick off your holiday shopping.
It started in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, in 1995 as Christmas at the Cabin. The event grew year by year—so much so that, in 2015, the organizers moved it to the expansive B.R. Farm outside Masontown, about a half-hour from Morgantown.
Now in its 30th year, Christmas at the Barn is the annual culmination of a year of thrifting and picking, crafting and antiquing by a now-expert group of organizers and vendors. Preparations go on all year, then ramp up in September, transforming the farm’s barns and outbuildings into a village of miniature shops. Each is decorated with a different theme, and they’re filled with folk art, antiques, shabby chic decor, and steampunk tchotchkes. There are new and vintage kitchenware, apparel and jewelry, and toys and games, plus homemade soaps, candles, jams, jellies, and candy, and lots and lots of holiday decorations.
It’s not just shops. There are visits from Santa and, in past years, there have been holiday singing by carolers and a children’s choir. And as the sky darkens each evening, the farm is transformed into a twinkling wonderland with candle-lit luminaries, hundreds of strings of lights, and a big, blazing fire pit.
You will need food to fuel your browsing, and, in late October, Top Dawg and Slim’s Backyard BBQ have been confirmed as food vendors.
Before you head toward Masontown, there are several things to know. Because the sale is on a working farm, the organizers ask that pets other than service animals be left at home. Pack a checkbook or your ATM card—the sale is free to attend, but purchases are by cash or check only, and there’s an ATM on-site. Finally, don’t bother punching the address into your GPS—just get to Main Street in Masontown, turn at Main Pharmacy, and follow the signs. Just when you think you surely must have missed a turn, you’ll be there.
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