2.6 C
Niagara Falls
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Grace UnitedChristmas Market is Saturday

John Sayers

Special to The Lake Report

A tisket, a tasket … Grace has the baskets!

Grace United Church congregation members Claudia Gilchrist and Chris McQuestion have worked all year acquiring and organizing treasures for the NOTL church’s annual Christmas Market.

Once they’ve found these items, many of them are bundled into attractive, themed packages (OK, I confess, not all of them are in baskets!) for the big sale this Saturday.

A few years ago Gilchrist and McQuestion tweaked the standard Christmas Bazaar (also elsewhere called Mistletoe Bazaar, and a host of other euphemisms) to reflect the increasing popularity of seasonal markets in Europe and elsewhere.

Gilchrist explains that they wanted to create the excitement, the buzz and the sense of anticipation of those traditional events – hence the Grace United Christmas Market.

Do you realize how impossible it is to get a good photo of acres of packages wrapped in glittering cellophane? (But I can tell you there’s a shy decorative Santa peeking out from a few of them.) 

As the month has progressed more and more of these goodies have been created and stored in the balcony at Grace United. In addition, Gilchrist and McQuestion are assisted in the packaging and wrapping by Carol Gorman and a group of her friends who describe themselves as Santa’s Elves.

There is more. Among the curated displays you also will find knitting and sewing, including some of the creations of Ruth Cook, sewer and stitcher extraordinaire.

So, join the crowds at Grace United on Victoria Street at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23. And note that there will also be a bake table with homemade goodies, and you’ll see David Greaves and Heinz Probst with a table of their classical jams and sauces.

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