The Ladies Christmas Craft Fayre, at Holy Trinity Church Oswestry sounds like a staid affair - cups of tea and epic cake buying and knitty stuff. Completely wrong - well apart from the knitty stuff! Two hundred or more women, of all ages and from all over Shropshire descended en masse to stock up for Christmas gifts, enjoy hot mulled apple juice and mince pies and generally have a good time. The stalls ranged around the church proved a fantastic trove of goodies, most of them made by our crafty Shropshire Lassies, interspersed with fair trade and some of our local independent oswestry shops.
Having done an initial browsing circuit to check out the field, it was Round Two, with wallet to hand. Many stalls had beautiful tree decorations, ranging from handmade vintage hearts, charming knit christmas tree stockings and booties to delicate baked clay snowflakes.
Stocking fillers included handmade soaps and bath bonbons, silkily soft mohair and wool mufflers and gloves, glamorous knitted and felted handbags and cute fabric toys. Amongs these were truly exquisite handmade Christmas banners, Advent Calendars and Christmas Stockings. Cakes were there, naturally, but of the scrummy 'eat them now' cupcake variety.
Sitting down to beautifully decorated tables, with mince pies, sparkling presse and hot apple juice, we were reminded, humerously, and with passion, of the real Christian meaning of Christmas, and of what it means to many in the Church that night.
A big 'Thank You' and Congratulations' must go to Gill Darlington and her super efficient team who laid out the church so beautifully and for the warm hospitality shown. An equally large 'Thank You' also to our extremely talented and big hearted local craftspeople and independent shops.
Holy Trinity Church has a number of festive celebrations as we approach Christmas:-
Christingle Service on Sunday 11th December at 4:30pm
Christmas Cracker! on Saturday 17th December between 4:00 and 6:00pm - fun for all the family - games, crafts, Christmas Dinner Baps and more.
Carols by Candlelight on Sunday 18th december at 4:30pm
The Christmas Story on Christmas Eve at 4:30pm, with the Midnight Service at 11:30pm.
The Christmas Day Service at 10:00am.
