‘Tis the season of giving, and for many shoppers, the hunt for the perfect gift starts quite early. As a unique proposition, Merritt Country Christmas Week invites shoppers to visit the Craft Fair happening on November 26-27 to see what homemade crafts and other goodies they could fill their stockings and giftboxes with.
“Crafts are personal,” said Jean Acason, organizer of the Craft Fair.
“People are taking the time to make these different kinds of items and they want to share it with other people. You can’t get a lot of this stuff in the store. If you do, the quality won’t be the same.”
With this year marking the return of Merritt Country Christmas Week, Acason is very excited for people to see the great products that will be on display throughout the fair.
“We have many different ideas for the Christmas packages,” she said. “We have macrame and live portrait painting, sewing, knitting, quilting, and much more.”
“Everything there is homemade,” she added. “Even the concession stand food is all homemade. There is absolutely nothing there store bought.”
A crafter herself, Acason has been organizing the annual event for five years.
“The lady who had run this before me had moved,” Acason explained. “I was helping her out at the beginning and eventually I took over for her.”
For a fee of $60 vendors get a table and two chairs for use during the fair. There were 63 vendors in the last Country Christmas Craft Fair, and as of Friday, November 18, 42 vendors have already signed up to become a part of this year’s event at the Civic Centre.
“I only gave people a short notice for this event, so I was kind of shocked with the amount of sign ups. People are still phoning me, wanting to get a table because of the good results that they’ve heard.”
“It [Vendor Fee] is a lot cheaper in Merritt than it would be in other places. We have vendors coming from Vancouver, Kamloops, and Barriere. Customers are coming from all over, as well.”
The Merritt Country Christmas Craft Fair is an annual event that is a regular part of the week long event. It is set to take place at the Civic Centre on Friday, November 26, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, November 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
