Gift markets, Normal-Palooza this week

If your Christmas gift list is still dotted with question marks, this is the weekend to find one-of-a-kind gifts for those hard-to-please people.

Two well-known gift markets and one great street party take place within the coming week. Additionally, the Rock Bluff Artists Show offers fine art in a home setting on Lookout Mountain in Rising Fawn.

GIFT MARKETS

* Christmas Village opens today in Nashville, where more than 200 vendors from across the Southeast will fill four buildings on the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. The majority of this huge show is gift items, with a limited number of handmade crafts included.

If you've never been to Christmas Village, a word of advice: Start at the back and work toward the entrance/exit. With all shoppers funneling through the entrance into the first exhibit hall, those booths and aisles are claustrophobically crowded. Village vets head straight on through this building to be the first shoppers in the remaining, less-crowded buildings.

The scenic drive over Monteagle Mountain is worth the day-trip to this show. Plan to stay awhile if you want to see everything.

* Locally, the YMCA opens its annual Christmas Market on Thursday in the Chattanooga Convention Center.

Market volunteer Connie Farrar said the market has moved to the exhibit hall closest to the rotunda this year. The new location offers more space for vendors and more space around each booth so shoppers won't have to stand three to four people deep waiting to see items.

"We've got 60 vendors in more than 100 booths, and I keep getting phone calls every day from people wanting in," said Farrar.

"We've got two guys from Michigan bringing the 'boombox.' It's a handheld item and an amplifer that you attach to you iPod," she said of one of the newcomers to the show.

Wheeler's Orchard, absent last year, will be returning, along with Sunshine Hollow.

"Several new vendors are from gift shops," she said. "The Mustard Seed from Knoxville is bringing 'hillbilly goblets' (Mason jars on a stem), and we have a new children's shop from Cookeville, Tenn., called The Velveteen Rabbit coming."

The Chattanooga Boys Choir will be selling pecans and nuts for a choir fundraiser. Creative Discovery Museum's gift shop also will have a booth.

Farrar advised that market planners will again offer a shuttle from Finley Stadium to the market, but only on Thursday and Friday. Saturday's UTC-Wofford football game precludes use of stadium lots that day.

Market planners added a children's event on Saturday that will keep little ones occupied while their moms shop. YMCA day-care staff will lead arts and crafts activities, and there will be a bounce house. The children's area will be at the back of the exhibit hall.

NORTH CHATTANOOGA STREET PARTY

The Normal Park Museum Magnet School PTA is throwing its highly anticipated street party, Normal-Palooza, on Saturday at the corner of Mississippi Avenue and Dallas Road in North Chattanooga.

This arts and music festival combines an eclectic mix of regional artists selling their work, a dozen food vendors and entertainment throughout the day by local musicians. For the kids, there is a Kids Korner and Kids Art Alley.

Admission is free, but there is a $5 charge per child for the Kids Korner.

FINE ART SHOW

A least two dozen fine artists, many of them members of the Northwest Georgia Art Guild, will gather at the Rising Fawn, Ga., home of Mae Gray on Saturday and Sunday to show their work.

Gray said the Rock Bluff Artists Show will offer wire-wrapped jewelry, pottery, woodworking, photography, paintings and silk art, in addition to demonstrations by several of the participants.

COUNTRY MUSIC

In Dayton, Tenn., a group of musicians will mark Curly Fox & Texas Ruby Tribute Day at the Rhea County Courthouse. Organizer Tom Morgan said the day will feature music from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the main courtroom.

"It will be very informal," he said. "We'll just sit around and play, tell war stories, maybe a few lies when appropriate, and just have fun celebrating these two musicians."

Married in 1939, Fox, a native of Graysville, Tenn., and Ruby, originally from Texas, became one of country music's leading duos in the 1940s and '50s.

Fox, a fiddle player, "was the biggest thing to come out of Rhea County," Morgan said. "In his day, he was as big as the Alabama band."

Deputy Features Editor Lisa Denton contributed to this report.

FESTIVALS THIS WEEK

Alternative Gift Fair: White Oak United Methodist Church, Memorial Drive, 5-10 p.m. today, free, event features local businesses, artists and fairly traded products. 902-1112.

Christmas Arts and Crafts Festival: Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd. (Exit 114 off I-24), Manchester, Tenn., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. today and Saturday (all times Central); free, 26th annual show sponsored by Foothills Crafts Association. 931-728-0509.

Christmas Village: Tennessee State Fairgrounds, 500 Wedgewood Ave., Nashville, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. today, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday (all times Central), $10 ages 10 and up. Four buildings full of craft and gift vendors. christmasvillage.org.

Curly Fox & Texas Ruby Tribute Day: Rhea County Courthouse, 1475 Market St., Dayton, Tenn., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, free, musicians and fans gather to reminisce about country music duo of 1940s-50s. 423-775-2996.

Normal-Palooza: Normal Park Museum Magnet School upper school, 1219 W. Mississippi Ave., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, free. 209-5912.

Rock Bluff Artists: 388 Rock Bluff Road, Rising Fawn, Ga., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, free, all handmade items. Take Exit 11 off I-59 at Trenton, Ga., bear left off exit ramp. Follow signs to Cloudland Canyon State Park on Route 136, pass park and turn left at Georgia Highway 157/136. Follow Rock Bluff signs. 706-398-0668.

Tennessee History Festival: Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Nashville, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today and Saturday (all times Central), free. Family activities commemorating the sesquicentennial of Tennessee's involvement in the Civil War. 615-253-1916.

NOV. 17-19

* YMCA Christmas Market: Chattanooga Convention Center, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 18, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 19, $5 each day.