Frostivus a Great New OBX Christmas Tradition
Santa greeting a young lady as she enters Zen Pops during Frostivus.
Christmas on the Outer Banks has so many special events that it’s tough to keep up with all of them. There’s the big traditional events like the Outer Banks Hotline Festival of Trees; there’s Kites with Lights and Hangin’ with Santa at Kitty Hawk Kites; the Poulos house by Nags Head Woods; and we can’t forget the Manteo holiday celebrations.
Add to that mix something new. Zen Pops Chrystal Swain’s 2nd Annual Frostivus this past Friday at her Kitty Hawk shop was a wonderful way to spend an evening and a great way to give to the Outer Banks Community Foundation.
According to Chrystal the idea came to her a few years ago after searching the Outer Banks for someone to take a picture of her kids with Santa. Yes, there were opportunities for that, but she felt maybe the pictures could be handled a little better and the experience more positive.
She seems to have struck gold on making the experience about as good as it can be for families. The Duck Santa, who the North Beach Sun has mentioned a number of times as being amazing, has been been on hand the past two years and Mary Basnight has loaned her outstanding photography skills to creating marvelous Christmas memories.
The fee for the sittings this year was $40 with the proceeds benefitting the Outer Banks Community Foundation.
There are always sweet treats at Zen Pops, so for kids it’s a perfect location. There are, of course the tasty all natural popsicles and ice cream treats that Crystal creates, but also Zen Pops is where Chris Carol, chocolatier extraordinaire, fashions her Sweater Box Confections.
The Frostivus flyer, designed by Access Designs.
The event expanded a bit this year. Last year it was Santa, hot chocolate and wine; this year added to the mix were 11 Outer Banks vendors offering some of the best locally crafted items to be found. We can’t list them all, but it was just to give a taste of what was on hand, there was fantastic creative pottery from Patrick Scheg, Barbara Noel was there with paintings that brightened the entire corner where she was located and it was great to see Randi Machovec of Spinfinite Designs up from Salvo for the event.
Outside there was a fire with seating surrounding it—perfect for roasting marshmallows; the hot chocolate was rich and warm and inside there was a hot and tasty vegetarian chile from Coastal Provisions.
Which made the evening close to ideal. Chrystal is already planning on a 2016 Frostivus so maybe this will become part of the Outer Banks tradition.
