{"id":413663,"date":"2025-11-29T21:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/413663\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T21:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:27:11","slug":"holiday-nerd-market-draws-gamers-artists-pop-culture-fans-in-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/413663\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Nerd Market draws gamers, artists, pop culture fans in Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Day one of the annual Holiday Nerd Market drew gamers, artists and pop culture fans to the Aloft Hotel on Small Business Saturday, turning the downtown hotel into a hub for collectibles, food and costumed fans.<\/p>\n

Organizers and volunteers said the event is about more than shopping: it\u2019s a community gathering for people who share specialized hobbies and interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holiday Nerd Market is just about community. It\u2019s about being in one space, being together, being united, and sharing each other\u2019s company, and really just diving into that heart of the community,\u201d Nariah Fernandez, a volunteer, said.<\/p>\n

Holiday Nerd Market at Aloft Hotel in Jacksonville (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Attendees Luna-Freya, Ryan and Joanna Dougherty said the market is a chance to see how much the local community cares about niche hobbies and to find holiday gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to actually see, like, how much the local community, like, cares about some of these more nerdy and, like, specialized hobbies,\u201d Luna-Freya Dougherty said. <\/p>\n

The family said they were doing Christmas shopping for one another at the event.<\/p>\n

Vendors showed off handmade and specialty items. Gabriela Alayon of GiGi Creativity said she hand-paints everything and that a popular item this year is a custom cup that can take weeks to make.<\/p>\n

Holiday Nerd Market at Aloft Hotel in Jacksonville (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to create and hand-paint everything. But this one is the most popular for this year. It takes me a while making just one cup because I need to make everything from scratch, then wait two weeks until it\u2019s right,\u201d Alayon said. <\/p>\n

She also offered pins and other small items for holiday shoppers.<\/p>\n

Other sellers blended crafts with technology. Brandon David, who sells under the name Captain Bravo, displayed 3D-printed figures and Pok\u00e9mon collectibles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could do stuff like this. Like, this is me. Hanging out my six favorite Pok\u00e9mon,\u201d David said. \u201cAnd I have a 3D printer now, I can control the size of everything I\u2019m making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Day one of the annual Holiday Nerd Market drew gamers, artists and pop culture fans…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":413664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,191675,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-413663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-small-business-saturday","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115635109551175681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}