There’s a particular kind of person who doesn’t just move somewhere — they transform it. Tara Stewart is that kind of person. A Greek-American Brooklyn transplant who landed in Waterville Valley during the pandemic, Tara took one look at the Town Square and saw something nobody had thought to build there yet: a European Christmas market. The result, Alpine Advent, has in just one year become one of the valley’s most beloved seasonal traditions.
Tara sat down with Waterville Unwrapped hosts Charlie and Ken to share her winding path from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Londonderry, to Florida, to Boston, to Brooklyn — and finally to the town at the end of the road.
A Pandemic, a Zillow Search, and a Snap Decision
Tara’s connection to Waterville Valley goes back to childhood day trips with her skiing Greek-American family from Lowell. But it was COVID-19 that brought her back for good. Living in Brooklyn with her husband James and their young son, navigating masked Montessori schools and elbow-activated elevators, she found herself on Zillow late one night. “One night I’m just on Zillow and then there was a house,” she tells Charlie and Ken. “I said, we should get it.” James, working remotely in tech, could make it work. They drove up, saw the place, and that was that.
Their son, who was four when they arrived in the summer of 2020, took immediately to skiing. He’s now ten and competing in freestyle nationals — something Tara cheerfully admits she still doesn’t entirely understand the scoring of. “They all look incredible,” she says. “They’re like a little pack of wolves.” He’s also the only fifth grader at Waterville Valley Elementary School — a distinction Tara insists is already writing itself into a college essay.
Before Waterville Valley, Tara spent years on the corporate side at Reuters in Times Square (“I was not one of the cool kids”) and earlier still worked in biometric technology. She’s emphatic that the move was never the plan. “I never thought we’d leave New York City,” she says. “Never anticipated moving, especially not to New Hampshire.”
The Idea That Started Over Rosé
Alpine Advent grew out of Tara’s travels to European Christmas markets with her in-laws, who are based in England and regularly make holiday side trips to Germany and beyond. She fell in love with the experience: wandering outdoor stalls, warming up with glühwein, discovering handcrafted goods you couldn’t find anywhere else.
Back in Waterville Valley, she kept thinking about it. “One night, a year and a half ago,” she recalls, over a few glasses of rosé with neighbors, the idea took shape out loud. “I’m going to do a Christmas market. We’re going to do a Christmas market.” The next thing she knew, she’d found someone to build custom chalets and was making phone calls.
The Town Square turned out to be an almost eerily perfect fit. Tara discovered — after she’d already committed to the idea — that Waterville Valley’s Town Square was designed in the 1960s with the aesthetic of a Swiss Alps village in mind. “I was like, oh, I’m not that far off,” she laughs. Her goal was to create something that “felt like it had always been there.”
Artisans, Kids, and a Community Showcase
Alpine Advent is unapologetically local. Tara’s motivation comes in part from watching Brooklyn’s distinctive small businesses get pushed out by chains — from the West Village to Williamsburg to Bushwick — and wanting to do the opposite here. “I love being a hype person,” she explains. “Your stuff is so good. And your work is amazing.”
One vendor she particularly champions is a veteran, former Waterville Valley ski program alumnus, and seacoast resident who emailed her out of the blue about his cutting boards. “You’re the whole reason I’m doing this,” she told him. He sold out opening weekend last year and is back for the full season in 2026.
The Waterville Valley Elementary School PTO chalet was another standout. Kids sold handmade crafts — including candles made from recycled beer cans — to the point of selling out. “The things that the kids made wasn’t naff. It was like quality stuff,” Tara says. She recalled a text asking how to get back in touch with a former middle-schooler who’d sold her cards there. That student is now in high school. The market’s impact, it seems, lingers.
This year, Alpine Advent will add more heaters to encourage people to linger — last year’s pellet stoves, while charming, didn’t quite keep up with the New Hampshire cold. Tara is also expanding the nonprofit component: in addition to continued support for Adaptive, the market will host wreath-making workshops benefiting the Circle Program, a Plymouth-based organization that provides mentorship and summer camp access to girls across New Hampshire. Tara sits on its board.
Finding Her Circle
What strikes you listening to Tara is how thoroughly she’s embraced Waterville Valley — not despite its quirks, but because of them. “You can’t make this up,” she says more than once. “This is very special. You can’t find this anywhere.” She moved, as she puts it, “from a building of 300 units to a town of 300 people” — and she’s found her people.
Alpine Advent runs from Black Friday through the holiday season in Waterville Valley’s Town Square. Follow along at @alpineadventnh on Instagram or visit alpineadvent.com for the full vendor lineup, which Tara is revealing one chalet at a time.
The full episode of Waterville Unwrapped is well worth your time — it’s one of those conversations that wanders delightfully, from Brooklyn pizza (John’s for a pie, Joe’s for a slice, non-negotiable) to chocolate advent calendars to the dynamics of raising a freestyle skier, before circling back to why a town this small feels, somehow, exactly right.