HISTORY

Bettianne Sweeney, MGR.

A History of Holiday Antiques Shows

Holiday Antiques Shows was born in 1981 when two stay at home moms who had been volunteer chairmen of a local private academy show, at the behest of a few of the dealers, decided to launch a new antique show in Williamsburg, Virginia. On a hot summer morning in June at the kitchen table laden with trade papers and pitchers of iced tea, Anne Trevarthen and Bettianne Sweeney became associates in Holiday Antiques Show.

Each booth offered was 10x9 feet and about 40 dealers responded. The first show was held Thanksgiving weekend of 1981. The mailing list was started with about two hundred names of locals and the cards were hand written.

Big changes came in the tenth year when one of the partners decided to withdraw in order to have holiday time with her family and later that same year the husband of the other partner succumbed to cancer. At that time Bettianne Sweeney, the lone partner, approached her family, four daughters, and a son and asked for their support. The children had grown up with the show so they knew it well.

Holiday Antiques Show is now thirty years old. Anne Trevarthen, co-founder, passed away in April of 2006.

The Tradition Continues
Williamsburg Thanksgiving Holiday Antiques Show and Sale
November 25-27, 2011
Williamsburg, Va.- The tradition will continue for the 30th year at the Marriott Kings Mill Hotel with Holiday Antiques Show’s Thanksgiving event. Founded in 1981 by Bettianne Sweeney and her friend Ann Trevarthen the annual affair has provided local residents and Thanksgiving visitors an alternative to shopping at malls and department stores for the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
Local residents have been waiting to acquire the best from the thirty-three assembled dealers of furniture, rugs and decorative items, all with the assurance that their purchases are valuable antiques. Visitors come in looking for Christmas and Holiday gift shopping and to add to their collections.

The day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season and you are invited to join in the holiday festivities. While visiting you may want to tour Colonial Williamsburg, visit the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and shop in the boutique shops along the Duke of Gloucester Street.
Thirty-three dealers who represent thirteen states Canada and the United Kingdom will show period and country furniture and accessories, excellent old lighting, prints and paintings, fine ceramics, high quality glass, estate jewelry and antique silver.

Holiday Antiques Shows has a special room rate at the Williamsburg Marriott Hotel; call 757-442-3654 and ask for the Holiday Antiques Show special rate. Reservations must be made before November 1st. You may also contact Bettianne Sweeney at 757-220-1299 or bettiannesweeney@msn.com for information, directions, and suggestions about other accommodations. The show dates are Friday, November 25th from 6-9pm, Saturday, November 26th from 10am-5pm and Sunday, November 27th from noon-4pm.

THE STAFF

Grandaughters, Emily Nauman & Katie Roddy sell the tickets.