St David’s Christmas Craft Fair, November 24, kicks off at 10 am with a Keen Footwear Sample Sale that launches the Fair’s European-style Christkindlemarkt.
The footwear sale is held semi-annually in May and November at St David’s Anglican Church in Tsawwassen. This year-end sale of Keen’s winter lines, combined with parish craft stalls’ gallimaufry of goods, promise fair-goers a rewarding visit.
Add Kartoffelsalat (German warm potato salad) and Bratwurst sausage at lunch in St. David’s Café, and visualize a centuries-old Christkindlemarkt in another time and place.
With the Feast of St. Nicholas only 12 days away, Sankt Nikolaus will make an early appearance – in his legendary dress as a bishop-figure of the saint with flowing beard, mitre and staff. Mingling with the crowd, he will give out sweets to the children marking the European tradition of present-giving on his feast day, keeping December 25 as a religious event.
And there is much more. At the home-baking table all manner of kitchen edibles, including a selection of frozen fruit pies, will attract the shopper intent on taking home ready-made baked goods or a jar of preserves. Jams, jellies, pickles and relish causes one to marvel at so much summer goodness captured within glass.
An attractive garden trug from “The Old Goat’s Workshop” is ideal for craft-fair purchases while it finds its traditional role of gathering flowers and garden produce. Local craftsman Bob Peters has many other handmade objects on proffer – all made from discarded pallets, cut-ends of lumber, and limbs and boughs collected during Delta’s Spring Clean-Up program. Trays, boxes, table-size Christmas trees and ornaments, tea-light holders, and totes are some of the items Bob has produced from re-claimed wood.
Other stalls encircling the parish hall will display the work of parishioners who have knitted and stitched, baked and bottled, cut and pasted, refurbished jewellery and polished ‘treasures’. In addition, a separate room will be piled high with gently-used books for readers to rootle through in search of favourite authors, children’s titles, or pictorial coffee-table books of assorted subjects.
The parish kitchen, renamed St David’s Café for the day, will be open for morning coffee, tea and German stollen, snacks and lunch. Christmas Craft Fair hours are 10 am to 2 pm in the cul-de-sac of 51A Street.
IMAGES
- Event Poster
- A scene from last year's event
- Mary Horton's Quince Jelly and some Quince