Sensory-Friendly Shopping Hour — Handmade Arcade Holiday Market

Sensory-friendly hour: no DJ or music, limited number of attendees, quiet crowd-free shopping. KultureCity-certified venue: borrowable sensory bags (noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, feeling thermometer, sunglasses, verbal cue cards), quiet room on Level 2, Concourse A. Select a weekend pass, then the free Sensory-Friendly Shopping ticket online.

Get alerts for this listingAn email if the date, time or place changes, it’s cancelled or sells out, or registration opens. Plus a reminder the day before.

Notify me

Or get a push on your phoneSave this listing in the free app. It’ll notify you about time or place changes, cancellations, sell-outs, when registration opens, and the day before.

About this adventure

Handmade Arcade opens its 2026 Holiday Market an hour early on Sunday for a sensory-friendly shopping window, meant for children and adults who find the usual crowds and noise of the region's biggest handmade market overwhelming. During this hour there is no DJ and no music, and the number of shoppers is capped, so families can browse the booths of more than 300 independent makers at a quieter pace and pick out holiday gifts together. The market fills the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown, a KultureCity-certified sensory-inclusive building: sensory bags with noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, sunglasses, a feelings thermometer and verbal cue cards can be borrowed, a quiet room is set aside on Level 2 (Concourse A), and the KultureCity app offers a social story for the building to preview before you go. Entry uses Handmade Arcade's pay-what-you-can weekend pass, with free passes available, and you add the free Sensory-Friendly Shopping ticket to it. Regular general admission shopping continues after 11 a.m.