The Last-Week Holiday Market Checklist: What to Do Seven Days Out

The Week Before Is Where the Show Is Won

By the time a holiday market is a week away, the big decisions are already made. You applied months ago, you paid the booth fee, and your product is mostly made. What is left is the part nobody talks about: a hundred small details that either come together quietly or blow up at 7:45 on Saturday morning when you realize the extension cord is still in the garage.

Vendors who have a calm show day are not luckier than everyone else. They just stopped treating the last week as "make more stuff" week and started treating it as setup week. Production should be winding down. Logistics should be ramping up. This checklist walks through the week day by day, so the work is spread out and nothing gets left for Friday night.

Seven Days Out: Read Everything the Organizer Sent You

Start by going back through every email from the organizer. Not skimming. Reading. Holiday markets often change details late, and the vendor packet you filed away in September may have been replaced by a newer one.

• Load-in window: what time you can arrive, where you unload, and whether you have to move your vehicle before you set up.
• Booth number and size: confirm your space, whether it is indoor or outdoor, and whether you have a corner or an end cap.
• Electricity: if you paid for power, confirm it. If you did not, plan to run on batteries.
• Rules: tent weights, fire codes, no-food rules, whether you can use open flame or heaters, and what time you are allowed to start breaking down.
• Parking: where vendors park after unloading and how far that is from your booth.

Write the key facts in one place you can pull up on your phone: address, load-in time, booth number, organizer contact. If anything is unclear, email the organizer now. A question asked on Monday gets a thoughtful reply. A question asked on Friday night gets nothing.

Six Days Out: Count What You Actually Have

Do a real count of your finished stock. Not a guess, not "I think there are about forty." A count. Holiday markets move more volume than most summer shows, and the thing that runs out first is usually your best seller, which is exactly the thing you cannot afford to run out of.

Keeping a running inventory count going into the season tells you what to make more of before your best sellers run dry mid-market. Compare your count against what you sold at your last comparable show. If you have a gap on a top item, you still have a few days to fill it. If you are heavy on something that never moves, that is useful too: it can go in a bundle or stay home.

If you track your stock in FairKeep, the Inventory page holds product names, quantities, cost per unit, and selling price, which makes this count a matter of updating numbers instead of starting from scratch.

Five Days Out: Price Tags and Signage

Every item on your table needs a visible price. Holiday shoppers are in a hurry, and a shopper who has to ask what something costs will often just walk on. Print clean price tags now while you have time, not the night before.

• Tag new stock: anything you made in the last month probably is not tagged yet.
• Group signs: a single "All ornaments $12" sign saves you tagging every piece individually.
• Gift signs: a sign that groups your lower-priced items as gift ideas does the shopper's thinking for them.
• Payment sign: tell people what you take. "Cards, tap, and cash welcome" removes a question from every transaction.
• Your name: a banner or sign people can read from the aisle, so they can find you again or look you up later.

Check your old signs too. Faded, curled, or coffee-stained signage from last year makes a booth look tired.

Four Days Out: Payments and Cash

Holiday markets are not the place to find out your card reader needs a software update. Turn it on, run a test transaction, and refund it. Make sure the app on your phone is updated and that you can still log in. If you rely on a phone hotspot, think about where you will be standing and whether signal is a problem in that building.

Go to the bank for change. You want plenty of small bills, and coins if any of your prices end in anything other than a round dollar. If you want to keep things fast at the table, round your prices so cash change is simple, and keep a way to make change quickly when the line backs up.

Know how you are handling sales tax before you get there. If your prices include tax, say so. If they do not, know your rate. A tool like reverse sales tax helps when you price tax-included and need to know what you actually collected. If you are unsure about your obligations in a particular state or county, talk to your tax pro before the show, not after.

Three Days Out: Pack the Non-Product Stuff

Pack everything that is not inventory first: tent, weights, tables, table covers, displays, lighting, signage, bags, tape, scissors, zip ties, clips, extension cords, a broom, paper towels, a trash bag, a first-aid kit. This is the gear that gets forgotten because it is not what you think about when you think about selling.

Work from a list, not from memory. A repeatable list like Pack My Booth keeps the list consistent event to event. If you use FairKeep, the Packing List page lets you check items off as you load and star the important ones so they sit at the top. Either way, the point is the same: the list remembers so you do not have to.

Charge everything tonight and again the night before: card reader, phone, battery packs, LED lights, and any battery-powered heater or fan. Cold weather drains batteries faster than you expect.

Two Days Out: Pack Product and Stage the Vehicle

Pack your stock in the order you will unpack it. Displays and table gear go in last so they come out first. Product bins go in after. Label bins on the outside so whoever is helping you can carry the right one to the right spot without asking.

Do a dry run of your table layout if you have the space. Set up your displays on the floor or a folding table at home and look at it the way a shopper would. Is the best stuff at eye level? Is there a clear path to the checkout spot? Can someone see prices from the front edge? Ten minutes of rearranging at home saves forty minutes of second-guessing at the show.

Pack your own survival kit: water, snacks that will not get crushed, layers, comfortable shoes, hand warmers if the show is cold, and something to sit on. You are going to be on your feet for a long time.

The Day Before: Confirm and Rest

Recheck the weather. Recheck the load-in time. Text your helper with the address, the time, and where to meet. Load the vehicle if you can, so the morning is just coffee and driving.

Then stop. The temptation the night before is to make "just a few more" of something. Do not. A tired vendor sells worse than a vendor who is short three items. Go to bed at a normal time.

Show Morning: Keep It Simple

• Arrive early: the load-in line only gets longer.
• Set up the tent and weights first: safety before product.
• Payments before displays are perfect: a working card reader matters more than a perfectly folded scarf.
• Take a photo of your booth: you will want it for next year's applications and for comparing layouts.
• Write down your starting cash: so you can work out your cash sales at the end of the day.

After the Show: Write It Down While You Remember

When you get home, record the basics before the weekend blurs together: what you took in, what the booth cost, what you spent on gas and food, and what sold out. Note what you wish you had brought. That note becomes next year's checklist, and next year's checklist is how this week gets easier every season.