Plan a festive day trip to Kemptville on November 15 and 16!

This post has been sponsored by My Local Markets.

At the Outdoor Christmas Market at the Kemptville Campus (November 15 and 16), you can shop for foods, handmade gifts, decorations and treasures from local artisans and farmers. Roughly 70 vendors will participate each day, and about half will turn over between Saturday and Sunday—so you’ll enjoy two different shopping experiences if you attend twice!

During the event, which runs from 11am to 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday, you can also snap a selfie inside a giant snow globe (it was such a big hit last year that it was hard to keep Santa out of it!), spot roaming characters, get your kids’ faces painted, and enjoy live music of all sorts—including country, rock and choir performances. Parking and activities are free—although donations to the Beth Donovan Hospice are greatly appreciated.

“This event is now in its sixth year. The first year we had pandemic restrictions and people needed to line up and be masked to enter the outdoor area, but there was so much joy. Joy in just being around people again. I still feel that same magic every year,” says Darlene Collin of My Local Markets.

If you get hungry as you browse through the market, you can fuel up with chili, macaroni and cheese, and other treats. The site is fully accessible, and dogs on leashes are welcome.

As if all that weren’t enough to entice you, the Outdoor Christmas Market is just one part of Christmas on Campus, a larger event happening at the Kemptville Campus that weekend. Another component of Christmas on Campus is the Wonderfall Art Show and Sale, taking place indoors at the campus’s W.B. George Centre. There, 30 members of the North Grenville Arts Guild will be selling artworks of all sorts on Saturday and Sunday, from 11am to 4pm. Also, the Kemptville Campus Greenhouse will be open, and you can tour the cacti house.

But wait! There’s even more! Right after the market and the art show end on Saturday, November 15, you can head into downtown Kemptville to catch the Kemptville Rotary Santa Claus Parade. It will start at 4:30pm and wind through downtown Kemptville. The theme this year is “Unite to light up Christmas.” Local organizations will be collecting non-perishable food, cash donations for the Salvation Army Food Bank, and new, unwrapped children’s toys along the route.

And, of course, lots of independent shops and restaurants in downtown Kemptville will be open for your shopping and dining pleasure.

So why not plan a whole day trip to Kemptville that weekend? You won’t run out of things to see and do!

You’ll find the Kemptville Campus at 75 Campus Drive on the southern edge of Kemptville, just west of Prescott Street (County Road 44).

Note: If you’re coming from Ottawa on Highway 416 and you want to avoid driving through some construction, go past exit 34 (where you would normally exit) and take exit 28 from Highway 416 instead. That will take you directly onto County Road 44. Follow it north to Curtis Avenue; the market is at the corner of Curtis Avenue and Campus Drive on the Kemptville Campus. 

Looking for more tips on things to see and do in and around Ottawa? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.