Enterprise staff writer

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Girl Scouts sure know how to do the holidays.

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They know how to make handmade gifts that will make young shoppers squeal with excitement; and they know how to do it on a budget.

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And when it comes to holiday shopping, the average Davis Girl Scout can stretch $20 enough to purchase a couple of fleece scarves, several pairs of earrings, a few ornaments, multi-colored tapered candles, some hand soaps, magnets and bangles. And have money left over for a snack.

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Welcome to the Davis Girl Scouts annual Holiday Boutique.

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For more than 20 years, Girl Scouts have gathered on a weekend in early December to buy and sell their handmade wares. The rules are pretty simple: Everything must be handmade by the girls themselves, and no items can be priced more than $3.

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On Sunday, troops lined the perimeter of the Holmes Junior High School gym with their wares attractively displayed on card-tables. The afternoon was split into two buying sessions, so every girl had an opportunity to sell and to buy.

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This year\’s boutique was bigger and better than ever, according to organizer and Girl Scout leader Brenda Cameron.

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“This is the biggest boutique we\’ve had in a while,” she said. “With 390 girls registered, that\’s almost two-thirds of the Girl Scouts in Davis.”

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Troop 2180 has been coming to the boutique for several years now. This year, the girls were selling hand soaps and candles.

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The soaps, according to fifth-grader Bailey Thompson, contain little surprise toys inside. The girls placed a little toy in a mold, poured the liquefied soap over it, then let it harden. Kids will have an extra incentive to wash their hands with these soaps: They\’ll want to get to that toy. Troop members also hand-painted glass votives containing candles to sell.

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According to their troop leader, Kathy Barnes, it\’s been a lot of work.

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“We spent three meetings working on this, but it was really fun,” she said.

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Nearby, Troop 235 was selling miniature Girl Scout vests — Daisy, Brownie and Junior vests perfectly sized to fit an American Girl doll. According to 8-year-old seller Alexis, they took a while to make, but they were proving popular with young shoppers.

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Across the gym, some older Girl Scouts were selling candles. They had collected a variety of old, used candles and melted down the remaining wax. Then they purchased 50-cent white tapers that they dipped into the melted wax, creating multi-colored candles which they sold for $2 per pair. Candles like those would easily sell for double or triple that elsewhere. Not surprisingly, the girls sold half their batch in the first 10 minutes of the boutique.

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“They were really fun to make because we got to do a lot of different designs,” said troop member Elisabeth.

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Jewelry also was a popular item on Sunday, from earrings to pins, bangles to bracelets. Fleece scarves, pillows and blankets were selling well, as were chocolate truffles, peanut brittle and Snowman Soup — a dry mixture of cocoa and marshmallows. All for $3 or less.

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According to Cameron, that $3 limit has been in place for quite a while, and for good reason.

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“Troops aren\’t supposed to make money with this, so putting a lid on it keeps it from getting out of control,” she explained. “It makes it affordable for girls to come through and shop.”

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And with nearly 400 girls moving through the Holmes gym on Sunday, that translated into a whole lot of good news for the Yolo Crisis Nursery.

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Every holiday boutique includes a community service component. This year, all attendees were asked to bring an item from the nursery\’s wish list.

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Ann Larsen\’s troop was in charge of the project this year. Beginning a number of years ago when her Scouts visited the crisis nursery in the second grade, she said, they\’ve had a special relationship with the children there. They regularly volunteer their time and energy to help them.

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“They\’ve made Easter baskets for them,” she said, made Build-a-Bear stuffed animals for them and even done a few shopping sprees on the nursery\’s behalf. So it was no surprise to her when they selected the crisis nursery as the beneficiary of this year\’s boutique.

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On Sunday, they carted away box after box of food, pacifiers, diapers, toys and more — hundreds of items in all.

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— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at (530) 747-8051 or [email protected] Comment on this story at www.davisenterprise.com

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