Port Washington Gift Shop Hosts Halloween Event with Costume Contest, Tarot Card Readings, and More

Outside wit & whim during their Halloween event on Saturday Oct. 22, 2022. Photo by Michael Richardson.

A Port Washington gift shop, wit & whim, held a Halloween event over the weekend which included various local artists, tarot card readings, and more.

The store on 6 Carlton Ave., which has been open for five years is co-owned by Jacquelyn Conte and Krissy Harper. They sell vintage items including jewelry, housewares, and accessories. In addition, the gift shop sells merchandise from over 40 local artists.

At the event, vendors and the co-owners appeared in costumes ranging from artists to skeletons. Customers were also encouraged to come in costume.

Harper says that vintage is wit & whim’s best-selling item and that some of their merchandise is over a century old.

This is not the first year that wit & whim has held a Halloween event, but they took a year off during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Twitter poll over the weekend, I asked individuals whether they knew the whit & whim Halloween event in Port Washington was happening, to which less than ten percent of respondents said yes. A majority of respondents indicated that they had attended a Halloween event in their local community.

Getting the Halloween event ready

Michael Richardson provides a close-up story of the occasion, including an interview with wit & whim co-owner Krissy Harper on what inspired the event’s creation and thoughts about its influence on the community.

“We’ve contacted artists that we’ve found either through markets or Instagram,” Harper said.

Harper said that in order to get approved to sell items at the store, artists have to go through a “screening process” where the co-owners determine if their work “is a good fit for the store.”

Owner of Ooh LaLa Ceramics, Laurette Kovary, was one of the vendors at the weekend event.

“Wit & whim is the only brick-and-mortar store that I carry my pieces in,” Kovary said. She added this was the second time she had set up a table outside of wit & whim, which displayed her ceramic work.

Another of the vendors at the wit & whim Halloween event was George & Minnie’s Attic.

Co-owned by husband and wife duo Laurajean and David Swaine, George & Minnie’s Attic was selling both vintage and toys over the weekend.

Laurajean said that her love of vintage began at a young age, and hopes that her passion can transition into a full-time job one day.

In the back of the store was tarot-card reader Alexi Endora. Clients could set up thirty-minute appointments with Endora, who had three of his over 100 tarot card deck collection on display to help clients.

“It’s the cheapest therapy you’ll ever get,” Endora said.

“Krissy and I have actually been vending alongside each other at events for the last few years,” Endora added. “I was just really excited that she invited me out to come and read today.”

Impacting the community, one sale at a time

Various photos from the wit & whim Halloween event on Saturday Oct. 22, 2022. All photos taken by Michael Richardson.

Several of the individuals interviewed for this story spoke on the impact they feel the wit & whim Halloween event has on the local community.

“I love the way that the other vendors come together and everybody is able to discuss the cool and interesting things that their shops offer,” said Alexi Endora.

Krissy Harper thinks that their Halloween event is “something different and something fun and it is fun for the whole family.”

“I think the store is very unusual,” Harper said. “We’ve gotten comments like ‘there is not a store like this around, this is like a Brooklyn store or a store in Cape Cod.’”

The Port Washington event comes days before the opening of a wit & whim shop in Huntington, New York. The store is set to open on Nov. 1.