Caplan's Second Holiday Season Brings Dozens of Makers Without Storefronts to Main Street

Main Street has more local businesses selling on it this December than its storefronts suggest. The Caplan's building at 8125 Main Street reopened in fall 2025 as The Market at Caplan's. It's a local-goods marketplace and small-business incubator run by the Howard County Economic Development Authority, and it was built for small Howard County businesses that "may not have a physical storefront." This is the building's second holiday season in that role. It now runs a weekend holiday market on the second floor, on top of a full first floor of local goods.

Last year's first season set the pattern. By mid-December 2025, project director Katie Kavanagh O'Neill told The Business Monthly that the first floor held 40 vendors and that 85% of them were women and/or minorities. The second floor was filled "by pop-ups and other businesses that once had brick-and-mortar establishments on Main Street." Forty vendors is more businesses than most blocks of Main Street hold, and they share one address.

One Counter, Many Owners

The model is easy to miss from the sidewalk. Caplan's works as a shared checkout. "The idea is that our small business owners don't need to be on hand," O'Neill told The Business Monthly. "We handle sales so they can focus on their growth." A maker who could never staff a storefront five days a week can still have products on a Main Street shelf.

In a July 2026 interview with the Ellicott City Partnership, O'Neill gave the reason for building it this way:

"Rising rents, staffing costs, insurance, fixtures, and inventory have made opening a storefront increasingly difficult for many entrepreneurs. Rather than asking every business to overcome those challenges alone, we've created shared retail infrastructure that allows dozens of businesses to grow together."

That shapes what's on the shelves. Gifts and artwork sit next to everyday goods. The Partnership's profile lists local honey, coffee, tea, flowers, pantry staples, home goods and children's items. O'Neill describes the goal as giving people a reason to stop in during the week, "whether they're picking up a gift on their lunch break, grabbing a bag of flour on the way home, or finding a birthday card before dinner with friends." In its first weeks, the Market's opening lineup included soup mixes, honey, coffee, garlic grater plates and vases.

You can find one of the makers by name. In April 2026, Patch profiled Erica Regelin of Button and Fern, who was selling plant-themed ring dishes, glass vases, hand-painted plant stands and plant stakes at Caplan's. The program has also drawn notice outside the county. It has won two National Association of Counties Achievement Awards and a Preservation Maryland Heritage Fund grant to research and share the building's history.

Upstairs, the Holiday Market

The first floor carries the year-round lineup, and the holiday season happens upstairs. Visit Howard County lists a curated indoor holiday market of regional makers, artists and small businesses on the second floor, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on each date. The season opened Nov. 7 and 8, and the rest of the calendar runs as follows.

One practical detail for anyone planning a family trip: the holiday markets are on the second floor of a historic building with no elevator. The first-floor marketplace stays open below. The Partnership's directory lists the downstairs hours as Thursday and Friday from noon to 5 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday by appointment.

The upstairs room also gave Main Street something it had lost. In the July interview, O'Neill said that during the holidays the Market "welcomed former Main Street businesses that lost their brick-and-mortar storefronts after the floods back to town as pop-up merchants, reconnecting them with longtime customers." She named that as one of the Market's proudest moments. Outside the holiday season, rotating weekend pop-ups let new businesses test products and reach customers without committing to a permanent space.

The Shelves Send You Back Out the Door

Caplan's doesn't try to keep shoppers inside. "If we don't have exactly what a customer is looking for, we send them across the street or up the road," O'Neill told the Ellicott City Partnership. The building itself was outfitted the same way. Shoemaker Country handcrafted its custom shelving, and many of its fixtures and displays came from Antique Depot.

"Up the road" now includes several shops that are newer than Caplan's or about the same age. Each one fills a gap the Market's shelves leave open.

• Lucky Lane Interiors, 8133 Main St. Owner Kerry Whippee sells curated home pieces, gifts and accents, and also offers personalized decorating services. The storefront opened on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2026, according to WMAR.
• Candles by Candy, 8026 Main St. Candles, room sprays, perfume and cologne, plus classes where you make your own. The storefront opened in 2025, and its 2026 Merchant of the Month profile lists it as open Tuesday through Sunday.
• Victorian Flower Child. Owner Jenesse Wannall's clothing shop sells vintage and locally sourced pieces. The Capital Gazette covered it as a new Main Street opening in October.
• Earth Tribe Shop, 8050 Main St. Meagan Braganca's shop carries eco-conscious clothing, skin and personal-care products, accessories and sustainable-lifestyle goods. It holds Green Business Network certification.
• Bohemian House, 8320 Main St. Tiffany Averill's art gallery and gift shop sells art, crystals, candles, oils and curios. It was named Baltimore Magazine's Best Art Gallery 2026.
• Sunflower Trading Company. Brothers Dan and Jean Luc Durantaye sell their own hat and sweater designs alongside traditional crafts sourced from around the world. Their profile says the shop opens daily from October through December.

Caplan's is where small makers without a storefront sell. These shops show what Main Street retail looks like once a business does have its own space, and several of them have opened in the last two years.

Plan Your December Around the Upstairs Dates

Main Street's other holiday events land on or near the Caplan's market days, so one trip can cover more than one stop. In date order:

1. Nov. 27 through Jan. 3. The B&O Ellicott City Station Museum puts up its annual Holiday Train Garden, open during normal museum hours. Visit Howard County has the listing.
2. Sat. Nov. 28. The Ellicott City Partnership lists Small Business Saturday on Main Street at 1 p.m. The Caplan's upstairs market runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day and the next.
3. Fri. Dec. 4. Midnight Madness runs from 6 p.m. to midnight and opens with the annual tree lighting with Santa, plus sidewalk sales, holiday cocktails and specials in shops and restaurants. Upstairs at Caplan's, a separate Midnight Madness market opens at 5 p.m., an hour before the street event, and closes at 11.
4. Sun. Dec. 6. Artists' Gallery at 8197 Main St. holds a 2 to 5 p.m. reception for The Gift of Art 2026, its holiday show of work by 20 local artists, which runs through Jan. 10. The Caplan's upstairs market is open that afternoon too, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
5. Dec. 12 to 13 and Dec. 19 to 20. The last two holiday weekends upstairs, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

If you make things yourself and want to be on those shelves next season, the Howard County Economic Development Authority keeps a vendor interest page for The Market at Caplan's with an application link. It lists shelf-stable foods and beverages and useful kitchen, household and textile goods among the categories it's looking for.

The building at 8125 Main Street is open downstairs Thursday through Sunday. The upstairs holiday market's last day is Sunday, Dec. 20.

At VSells & Associates, we follow Main Street's storefronts the way our neighbors do, as places to shop and as signs of where Ellicott City is headed. If you're thinking about what your home is worth in a neighborhood where Main Street keeps adding new businesses, we'd be glad to talk it through after your next trip downtown. Get Your Free Home Valuation.