For the last four years, Krissy Reynolds has loaded up her truck with colorful handmade soaps, then driven more than three hours from Roanoke to Northern Virginia, ready to greet the crowds streaming in at the Northern Virginia Christmas Market at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly.
When the Chantilly events center closed at the end of 2025 to make way for an IKEA, Events Management Group (EMG), the company that organizes the Christmas market, shifted to a new venue: the DTC Expo & Events Center, which was anticipated to open this fall at Dulles Town Center in Sterling.
Once again, Reynolds signed up for a slot. By May of this year, she and her husband, Wes, had already started preparing lists and making products to display during the market, which has been one of the biggest events of the holiday season for their business, Sun & Spruce.
The Northern Virginia Christmas Market was scheduled to take place today through Sunday (Nov. 6-8), but this week, Reynolds learned that it had been cancelled. The DTC Expo & Events Center, which has been under construction in a former Lord & Taylor store, wasn’t ready to open.
The unexpected cancellation left roughly 150 vendors from dozens of states without a large-scale market to attend. Many are now scrambling to find new events to fill the void.
“We do a lot of markets every weekend, but that one had really grown over the years,” Reynolds told FFXnow. She estimates that the market’s closure meant roughly $6,000 to $8,000 in lost potential revenue for Sun & Spruce.
“For a small family business, it’s an enormous amount of money to suddenly lose the opportunity to earn, especially heading into the holidays,” she said.
EMG said that it had learned late Tuesday afternoon that it would not be able to hold the market as planned.
“We are deeply disappointed that circumstances beyond our control have prevented us from bringing this beloved holiday tradition to Northern Virginia this year,” Denise Wynn, EMG’s event director, said in a written statement. “Our hearts especially go out to the artists and small businesses who worked so hard preparing for this important holiday shopping weekend, as well as the thousands of loyal customers who look forward to attending each year.”
The market will return to Northern Virginia Nov. 12 to 14, 2027. EMG is also hoping to find opportunities to accommodate Northern Virginia exhibitors during its Virginia Beach Christmas Market this year, Nov. 27-29.
DTC Expo & Events Center president and general manager Ravi Gourineni confirmed to FFXnow via email that the cancellation was due to the lack of occupancy approvals.
“We are in the final stages of transforming a nearly 30-year-old former department store into a modern, 120,000-square-foot expo and event center,” Gourineni wrote. “As is often the case with redeveloping older buildings, we encountered unforeseen conditions and additional requirements during construction and the inspection process that extended our original timeline.”
“We understand the significant inconvenience and disappointment these delays have caused event organizers, exhibitors, and attendees, and we sincerely regret the impact,” he added.
Gourineni says the center is “working closely with the appropriate authorities to complete the remaining requirements and obtain the necessary approvals.”
At this time, the events center doesn’t have any compensation planned for vendors who sunk costs into expenses, such as a plane ticket or hotel room, for the market.
A Greater Virginia Bridal Show that was also scheduled to take place at the new DTC Expo center this Sunday has moved to the Dulles Westfields Marriott Chantilly.
Next weekend (Nov. 14-15), the DTC Expo is slated to be taken over by the DMV Chocolate and Coffee Festival, another former staple of the Dulles Expo Center. Gourineni says the center’s focus is on “completing outstanding work and receiving the necessary approvals” for the facility, but it is working with organizers of that event and others to develop contingency plans.
“Our priority is to open a safe, fully compliant facility that will serve the Northern Virginia community for years to come,” he said.
While the events center is working on securing the necessary approvals to open, smaller vendors are working hard to find comparable options for displaying their wares. For many, the holiday season represents their largest earning opportunity.
That includes the Northern Virginia-based authors of the Amaryllis Author Collective, a group of writers who collaborate on selling and marketing their books.
“This is primary season for selling for us,” said Joyana Peters, an author of historical fiction based in Burke. “… We really have been looking forward to having a lot of foot traffic and and hopefully getting a lot of holiday shoppers at this market this year.”
Fortunately, the Amaryllis Author Collective was already planning to participate in another, simultaneous craft fair at Colgan High School in Prince William County on Sunday. With permission from the organizers, the group was able to add another table.
“It’s not quite the same, but you know, [we’ve] got to pivot, right?” Peters said.
New business owner Sara Manuel, a Clifton resident, has searched without results so far for an event that would sell enough to justify the early morning hours and late nights she spends handcrafting beeswax candles and body butter for Bee & Bloom Co.
“If I make a few hundred…it can’t really replace something like a three-day event like this that brings thousands and thousands of people,” Manuel said.
Like the other two exhibitors contacted by FFXnow, Manuel spoke highly of EMG, noting that organizers “poured their heart and soul” into the Christmas market and emphasizing that she didn’t blame them for the cancellation. The events company has posted a full list of exhibitors and encouraged its social media followers to support the small businesses.
Still, she noted how painful the cancellation was for some of the smaller vendors, especially those who planned to travel.
“I really feel for them,” Manuel said. “My personal perspective is, I just believe that everything happens for a reason, and I trust that … things will always work out one way or the other. And I am thankful that my whole livelihood does not depend on this.”
This article has been updated to correct the order of a business name. It is Sun & Spruce, not Spruce and Sun.
