The annual holiday International Gift Festival at Mountain View Mennonite Church provides a unique opportunity to purchase handmade items from around the world. 

The festival runs Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the church in Creston.

Since 1999, the church has been hosting the gift festival that also includes the opportunity to purchase a meal and on Friday evening a free concert. 

Organizer Twila Brenneman said the festival began as a way to promote fair trade items. The sale is not a fundraiser for the church, but rather proceeds go to support organizations locally and around the world, she noted. 

“These are all handcrafted items that come from Third World countries and promote fair trade,” she said. “There’s a lot of unique items. We want to broaden people’s support by purchasing items from around the world.”

The major supplier of gifts is Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit fair trade organization in the United States that markets handcrafted products made by artisans in more than 30 countries.

Handcrafted items for sale include Christmas ornaments and decorations, baskets, jewelry, linens, purses, paper goods, instruments, toys, decorative items, pots, kitchen goods and much more. Fairtrade chocolate and coffee will also be for sale. 

“There’s a personal touch that comes with the items for sale,” Brenneman said. “The nativity scenes are one item — they come from India and South America — and look different because they come from different areas of the world.” 

During the festival, the Village Cafe offers a variety of food for purchase. The menu includes African ground nut stew, chicken chickpea harira, Mexican tortilla soup, homemade pies, fresh rolls, cookies, chai tea and coffee. 

On Friday at 7 p.m. the Crown of the Continent Choir performs a free concert in the auditorium.

Then on Saturday, the festival includes a kids program from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the opportunity for school-age children to learn about the cultures of Central America. 

During the festival organizers will be collecting items for the HEART Locker, which provides free clothing, hygiene products and bedding for youths as part of the HEART Program that serves K-12 students in Kalispell and Evergreen.  

Mountain View Mennonite Church is located at 795 Mennonite Church Road in Creston. For more information, call 406-755-8772 or visit www.mountainviewmennonite.org.