Lisa Inglese chatted with customers in her hut decorated with Christmas lights and adorned with intricate holiday cooking items and oils. She offered free samples to customers as they filtered into the kiosk.

Inglese is the chief financial officer at Cucina Aurora, a kitchen store and winery in southern New Hampshire. Cucina Aurora is one of 85 businesses at Boston Winter, a Christmas market in City Hall Plaza. Inglese said the event is an exciting opportunity to get foot traffic into their store.

“Normally, at open market events like these, people have to pay to get in,” she said. “But here, people can come two, three times, bring their aunt or friend back with them, and maybe they buy something on one of those many trips.”

Boston Winter turns City Hall Plaza into a shopping market akin to a German Christmas market, complete with holiday wreaths, lights and small businesses selling everything from holiday ornaments to chocolate candies. Businesses packed huts with their merchandise for shoppers to browse.

Boston Winter, which contains a popular ice skating path, makes a major push in support of small businesses every season by actively including them in the free, open to the public market. Both Berkshire Bank and Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office are sponsoring the market, which lasts until Dec. 31.

Walsh won a second term this November and he often discusses his support for small businesses.

“Four years ago, we transformed Boston’s economic development strategy,” Walsh said in a speech on election night after winning reelection. “Today, the same team that pitches global giants like Amazon is in all of our communities helping our 40,000 small businesses thrive.”

Many small businesses in the event say they feel welcome. Inglese said the application process was fair and they have had a good experience with the event staff so far.

“This is a huge event for so many small businesses,” Inglese said.

Esmeralda is a jewelry store in Cambridge owned by Esmeralda Lambert, who runs a kiosk for the store in the Boston Winter market.

“You could never do an event like this in New York,” Lambert said. “You couldn’t even take that kind of risk because it’s so expensive. They just charge so much.”

Lambert said the event’s co-producer, Lena Romanova, is a major advocate for small businesses and actively reached out to Lambert to help accommodate her business. Lambert, a Babson College graduate, said Romanova is also a Babson alumna and that her experience in the Boston area makes her more passionate about local businesses.

Martha Everson is a photographer who showcases her nature-themed photography at events throughout the East Coast. This is Everson’s first year with a kiosk at Boston Winter.

“They put so much effort into making the event feel magical, they really decorate well,” Everson said.

She noted since the event has brought a good amount of foot traffic inside, she hopes to return.

Elsewhere, visitors crowded around the ice skating path lit in bright purple with a large Christmas tree at the center. A Santa’s Workshop and a glass-covered indoor bar are located at the back of the plaza, so visitors must walk through the entire shopping market to access them. This is one of the many strategies the event employs to encourage visitors to shop small.

Lovepop, known for its appearance on the reality show “Shark Tank” two years ago, has a kiosk in Boston Winter as well. The company sells cards with pop-up, cut-out designs in kiosks and online, and have rapidly expanded since their appearance on the show.

Sofia da Silveira, a second-year psychology major at Northeastern, works at the Lovepop kiosk. She said that the event is busy on weekends.

“I met someone through Northeastern who told me about Lovepop and then I found out they were opening a shop here,” da Silveira said.

Boston Winter’s ice skating path will remain operational for longer than the shopping plaza, and will be open for public skating until Feb. 25.