John Sayers
Special to The Lake Report

The Christmas Market at Grace United Church is this Saturday, Nov. 25, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and it may be your answer to the eternal question – what to buy for family and friends for Christmas?

After all, it’s just a month – exactly – before Santa descends the chimney with his sack of goodies.

More about the jams and sauces and tourtieres and baking later, but let’s start with Christmas baskets and treasures.

Each basket is unique and at this stage it’s too late for me to take off the wrappings and see, but a couple of ingredients caught my eye earlier. 

How about margarita glasses? I saw a few of them ready to go under wraps and thought of the late Jimmy Buffett who died this year. Remember his signature song “Margaritaville”?

Reportedly there is more than one tiki bar in the Deep South that gives you a free glass with each margarita they serve you. Someone had to drink a few glasses to be able to donate these to join some appropriate accompaniments in one or more baskets.

And I noted a lovely green pottery vase clearly marked as Roseville Pottery on the base.

Your hard-to-buy-for version of Great Aunt Matilda won’t likely have one of these and she would be rhapsodic over having a warm, dark green earthy vase in which to show off the flowers her loving family and friends bring her during the gardening season.

At this writing, we have seen the trove of baskets and the boxes of delights to fill those baskets but we don’t know what went into which basket.

Lacking in artistic talent, this writer lets others apply their packaging and display talents to the project. I just contemplate in wonder how it all comes together.  

And in addition to the baskets, there are some belated arrivals for our earlier treasures sale, which we can now offer to buyers much closer to the gifting season for which they are most appropriate. 

It’s so hard to describe baskets that haven’t been made yet but be assured there is something hard-to-find for the selective buyer on a budget.

If not, how about jams, jellies and sauces? Or shortbread cookies, which one of our own artisans makes every year for a large band of enthusiastic regular buyers? 

And just in time for the winter and Christmas season is the tourtiere, favourite of all who need a traditional, hot, hunger-friendly repast in the cold, dark days of December and January.

In packages of two pies, they will brighten everyone’s winter dinners as they recall the early culinary triumphs of Canada’s French settlers.

And don’t forget other baking. The wonders of our own home freezers mean that we can all buy shortbreads, tarts, pies, date and nut loaves, cookies, muffins and other yummy home baked goods well in advance, as our later contribution to the family’s annual Christmas feast.

They will never know the home baking you have thawed and brought doesn’t exactly come from your own oven.

Jams? You know that Grace United is famous for its jams, jellies and sauces.

Sorry, we have sold all of the 32 cases of Colonial Sauce that were created in 2023, but it’s not too early to put your name down for some precious and popular jars in 2024.

The earlybird gets the sauce. And the pre-Christmas bird also surveys a wide selection of other delectable spreads. 

So, mark your calendar for this Saturday morning at Grace United Church. And remember, early shoppers get the greatest selection of everything.