The covid19 pandemic may have put a temporary hold on the annual Christmas bazaar hosted by businesswoman and philanthropist Hannah Janoura, but she refuses to allow it to kill her Christmas spirit and her penchant for giving.

This year, instead of spending hours at her business place on Sackville Street, Port of Spain putting everything together and combing through every detail herself to ensure the success of the bazaar, Janoura used the time to work on another project. With Christmas music creating delightful background noise at her retail store, she proudly showed WMN the results of her pandemic-induced creativity.

Janoura revealed an array of skinny dolls wearing traditional dresses from a number of cultural backgrounds – among them East Indian, African, Asian and Caribbean – majestically displayed in plexi cases.

[caption id="attachment_921848" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hannah Janoura's Christmas dolls reflect the country's diversity. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]

“The clothes are all designed and hand-made made by me, and are for sale,” she said. “(Mas man) Brian Mac Farlane is coming over to name each one for me.”

But her creativity didn’t stop there. She also has hand-made cheese boards with matching knives, planters with wooden stands, wooden trays and trivets for sale.

“The woodwork was done by our in-house carpenter. He also made some wooden boxes for hampers to be given to corporate customers.” But, she said, hampers can be done for purchase by request.

[caption id="attachment_921851" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hannah Janoura's hand-made cheese boards. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]

Additionally, instead of using traditional Christmas trees to decorate her store and the upper floors of the building, Janoura opted to make use of mannequins. With flowing green skirts of artificial branches, Janoura incorporated lights and Christmas balls, resulting in Christmas mannequins. She draped the top half of the mannequins with shimmering material to complement the skirts.

And although she is quite pleased with and proud of the work she has done, she said she misses the exhilaration of planning and executing the bazaar.

[caption id="attachment_921848" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hannah Janoura's Christmas dolls reflect the country's diversity. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]

For more than 20 years, the end of October would see the ballroom at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre transformed into a yuletide marketplace, with vendors selling a variety of items – from foodstuff to Christmas decorations, clothing to makeup and toys.

“I really, really miss it,” she told WMN.

“After so many years of doing it, not having it last year and this year feels like something is missing.” She chuckled at the memory of herself clutching a bell in one hand and the hand of a child, any child, in the other, as she moved effortlessly through the ballroom ringing the bell to signal the arrival of Mr and Mrs Claus with gifts for the children. “I miss it,” she repeated.

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