Holiday Shopping at Basketball 'Bull-tique' Continues Saturday

For San Clemente resident Donna Sparacino, buying unique holiday gifts locally is an important aspect of her holiday shopping plan. 

Although she hasn't been to El Toro High School's Holiday “Bull-tique” for years, she recalls it fondly and returned this year with high expectations.

Sparacino attended the first day of the two-day event, a major fundraiser for the El Toro boys basketball team, with her friend, Lorraine Gerlich, to look for some unusual or unique Christmas, she said Friday.

“What we like about coming here is that everything is homemade,” Gerlich said. “I like things that are personalized, rather than just from China.”

El Toro High School’s boys’ basketball team held the first annual Bull-tique eleven years ago, charging a nominal fee admission for access to over 120 vendors, a snack bar, and a delectable assortment of baked goods donated from a variety of establishments, including , and .

Between Friday and Saturday, the team expects about 2,000 attendees at the Bull-tique.

Holding a successful fundraiser during the basketball's preseason allows the team to focus on its games when the season starts, said parent volunteer Cathy DeLuise.

Laurie Stotz, another Holiday Bull-tique attendee, said she loves the handmade quality of the items sold. On Friday, she said she was shopping for her three children and three grandchildren.

“It’s nice to know that people still sew and knit,” she said. “I love looking for the things that I wouldn’t think of, the creative ideas that other people can come up with.”

Vendors Susan Truett and her mother have been coming to the Bull-tique for the past three years, finding success with the crowd that the shopping opportunity draws.

Truett and her mother have developed their own creative system. Once or twice a week, they will get together, one of them bringing the fabric that they’ll fashion into everything from rag quilts, to tea towels, to pincushions shaped like cupcakes or cake slices.

“It gives us an outlet for the work that we do all year long,” Truett said. “It lets us take something that’s outdated or unpractical, and turn it into something functional.”

Each year, vendors like the Truetts' clamor for spots at the Bull-tique. There is often a waitlist to get in. Each spot costs vendors $70 to $100, depending on its size.

Vendor Gail Seidenberg returned this year for the eighth year in a row. Seidenberg sells own homemade jam in flavors such as strawberry and raspberry that she makes in a commercial kitchen in Orange.

A fan, shopper Melanie Urias, said “I always love going to the jam lady." 

More than 60 players and parent volunteers help set up the two-day fundraiser. 

The proceeds from the $1 admission to the fundraiser goes towards the purchase of equipment, uniforms, and tournament entrance for the boys’ basketball teams.

The Holiday Bull-tique is open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at El Toro High School.

Admission to the holiday extravaganza is $1. Parking is free.