Steve and Lisa Mergen, Tony Thomas, and Susie Jabbour (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Even before all the turkey is gone, WinterArts is back in action, getting people in the arts-centric holiday-buying mood.

Greg Belz, executive director of the ArtWorks Foundation and founder of WinterArts, kicks off the annual event with an opening reception the Friday after Thanksgiving. โ€œWe do it at 5,โ€ Belz says. โ€œAfter everybody looking for plastic bargains from China has gone back home and vacated the streets, we open up.โ€

This yearโ€™s WinterArts is at 7509 Poplar Avenue, in the old Brooks Brothers location in The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown, Tennessee.

About 400 attended the reception for WinterArts, which is celebrating its 16th year, Belz says.

It includes โ€œeverything one can think of in glass, metal, wood, clay, and fiber as well as a few other surprises,โ€ he says. โ€œWe focus on 3D work in those disciplines.โ€

In short, WinterArts brings together โ€œmaterial and imaginationโ€ to create incredible gifts that โ€œyou wonโ€™t see anywhere else.โ€

WinterArts is open seven days a week through Christmas Eve. 

Michael Donahue began his career in 1975 at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar and moved to The Commercial Appeal in 1984, where he wrote about food and dining, music, and covered social events until...