This holiday season, San Francisco’s Ferry Building will be transformed into “The Merry Building” with the debut of the first annual gingerbread exhibition, consisting of more than a dozen one-of-a-kind gingerbread creations located throughout the marketplace from various shops and restaurants. The main attraction will be an oversized gingerbread replica of the Ferry Building – spanning five feet in length with a two-and-a-half foot clocktower – which will be on display at the center of the marketplace. Visitors can bring along the whole family and capture priceless photos at one of several free holiday photo backdrops and selfie stations set up throughout the building. Don’t forget to tag #TheMerryBuilding!

Visit Fog City Flea Saturday, December 8 from 10-5 pm for a curated holiday market of makers & merchants from San Francisco, the Bay Area + beyond.

On December 8th, Sophie’s Soirees will also host a special gingerbread cookie decorating event for all ages.

Both events located on the second floor, in the Grand Hall.

Tania Romanov hangs from the final limb of a family tree of generations of unintentional travelers—exiles, refugees, displaced people. She grew up with stories of exile—stories of adventure. Perhaps that’s why, as an adult, Tania started living her own adventures—and hasn’t stopped since. In India, she learned that to Indians the way she mourned her husband was far less personal than their custom of dropping cremated bodies into a river; in Japan, that her ancestors could find her in the oddest of circumstances. In Bhutan, she found family, and in Namibia she learned to ease her fears of being trapped in her own past.In Never a Stranger, Tania shares those experiences and more, unforgettable stories of travel, connection, and self-discovery.

Tania Romanov is an award-winning travel photographer and author of Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women. A Solas Award winner, Tania’s work has been featured in multiple travel anthologies, including the Best Travel Writing series. Born in the former Yugoslavia, Tania fled the country and spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Trieste, Italy, before emigrating to the United States. She hasn’t stopped traveling since.

Come taste some of the world’s most rare and celebrated wines and the people who make them famous. This is a great opportunity to enjoy delicious wines and chat in an intimate, personal, yet casual atmosphere with the types of artisanal producers from around the globe that we love to feature here at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant.

Savor the best of the season at CUESA’s popular Cocktails of the Farmers Market series, hosted in partnership with the Northern California chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild. Bartenders create unique signature cocktails showcasing the bounty of the farmers market. Enjoy at least two full-sized signature cocktails, a dozen sample-sized drinks, and hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants. All proceeds from the evening support CUESA’s education programs and the USBG’s professional development programs.