Kira Burnett, of Hazel Park, makes a purchase from artist Ashlee Beno at last year’s Ferndale Underground Holiday Market. The third edition of the event will be held Nov. 15-16 on the lower level of The dot parking structure.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published November 11, 2025
FERNDALE — The holiday shopping season is arriving in Ferndale, and so is the return of the Underground Holiday Market.
The third annual Ferndale Underground Holiday Market will be held Saturday, Nov 15, and Sunday, Nov. 16, on the lower level of The dot parking structure with more than 80 artists, crafters and makers in attendance.
“We’re trying to do something that’s a little bit like a traditional Christmas market that’s got the Ferndale edge to it,” Market Producer Mark Loeb said.
Taking place as part of Ferndale’s Jingle & Mingle celebrations, this will be the third year of existence for the market, where items such as handcrafted ornaments, homemade jams and other special gifts that can be bought for loved ones.
Loeb said organizers found a lot of vendors for this event from Funky Ferndale Art Fair applicants whose wares might have fit better for the Underground Holiday Market.
“They have really cool fun, funky things like weird candles or soaps or things like that,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to do something with them, even though they’re not necessarily in the fine arts.”
“We do look to see that we have things that have the traditional holiday feel, but with maybe a twist, like one of the artists does laminated art on toilet seats of all strange things,” Loeb said.
Brian Russell hasn’t participated in many markets, but he’ll be bringing his custom Christmas trees to sell to the public.
Russell, a public safety officer out of Grosse Pointe Park, has been crafting for more than 15 years, but it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that he started to make Christmas trees with 8-track cassette tapes.
“During COVID, I had all these 8-tracks I didn’t know what to do with, and I was still kind of wanting to make stuff, but there were no shows to do,” he said. “So, I just kind of did them during COVID and would leave them on my neighbor’s porches for Christmas.”
Whether it’s for Prince, the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, Russell finds tracks for musical artists and makes a tree based around them. They can be up to 12 inches tall and are small enough to go on desks.
“They’re a lot of older bands. So, I just put them all together in fours and make the base so it’s like a square, and then I have these tiny trees that fit perfectly into the base of it and just kind of buy these small bulbs and decorate it,” he said.
Russell had been wanting to participate in a Christmas market for a long time to try to sell his trees. He’ll be bringing around 20 trees to the market.
“I haven’t done a Christmas show in a while,” he said. “I’m just kind of nervous. … My stuff was kind of just put together. I always say my stuff is like old record store stuff. It’s kind of put together.”
Loeb said that having a variety of gift options is important at a market like this because everyone has their own idea of what’s the perfect holiday gift.
“I can’t choose that for them,” he said. “I pick things that I think they’ll love, but we have to go beyond that because a lot of the stuff that goes really well is not necessarily something that I would think of.”
The hours for the market are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 15 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 16. For more information, visit undergroundferndale.com.