Talkeetna’s Best Kept Secret: The Moore’s Holiday Mercantile.

Have you ever wanted to find the secret entrance to Diagon Alley?

What if I told you that you could go there today? What if I told you, I’ll be taking you there, virtually, in this post?

Take my hand and come along with me. Today I will tell you about Talkeetna’s Best Kept Secret: The Moore’s Holiday Mercantile.

It’s the season of the Holiday bazaar and don’t get me wrong, I do love the church and school bazaars. Many of them are a seasonal tradition for me. There is always a crock pot of moose chili cooking on a side table, and it’s nice to see all the vendors behind their tables of home baked breads and hand knit mittens, but the bright, overhead lights of school gyms and church halls, combined with the fact that it seems you are on display as much as the merchandise is, always makes me slightly uncomfortable.

The Moore’s Holiday Mercantile is none of these things. It is housed on the top floor of the nondescript building next to the hardware store, above a small credit union and autoparts store. This is the ninth year this place of pure magic is open and it is only open for a little less than two months of the year (November 6th – December 24th).

While there is a big sign on the side of the building, and a big sign at the hardware store’s driveway, I am surprised to find out how many people do not know about this absolute gem.

Stepping into the mercantile is like stepping into a magical world. When you walk through the door, you enter a secret, special realm, where everything twinkles and the scent of home made candles and soaps will instantly transport you to whatever place in your memory is happiest. At the mercantile, the babushkas, nonnas, and abuelas of Talkeetna display their hand crafted teddy bears, aprons, and knitted hats, alongside serious painters, glass artists, and metal workers.

The Mercantile will take you to a galaxy far, far away with this crocheted baby Yoda.

Or perhaps you’d rather visit the tempestuous shores of Westeros and get some dragon eggs of your very own to conquer all seven kingdoms.

Or maybe you’d rather visit the 19th century apothecary near 221 Baker Street that Sherlock Holmes himself frequents.

I told you it was magical! And worry not, if you think there is nothing to entice the burly woodsman in your life, there are fur trapper hats, artisanal devil’s club balm for all those sore muscles after chopping down trees with a brand new hand ax with handmade, leather sheath and holster (This is Alaska, after all).

Your surly teenager with a love for anime? We’ve got your back, bae.

The gourmand in your life? We’ve got them covered too.

And yet, the Mercantile is so much more even still. It is the happy feeling you remember from a world left only in memories. It is your grandmother’s thumbprint cookies filled with apricot jam on Christmas Eve. It is the beauty of the soft glow of a menorah’s candles and the taste of crips latkes with sweet apple sauce. It is the feeling of forgetting time and getting a wee bit too cold while out sledding with your best friend. There are many winter holiday celebrations, but the one common thread is that they all celebrate love, light, joy, and hope, and that is what you will find here.

The Mercantile is that Christmas pickle that was always on your family tree.

The Mercantile is Talkeetna’s best kept secret. It is simultaneously all the good that you remember and all the good you wish that could be. It is the winter holidays embodied. It is the happiest place in Alaska, and you can go there seven days a week, from 10 AM to 6PM from today until Christmas Eve.