'All Saints Christmas Fair - Hastings'

Christmas Fairs are one of the festive seasons little innocent joys for me. Walking around festively decorated village halls, churches and youth centres looking at enticing looking raffles, bric-a- brac stalls and ogling the cake stall is the stuff simple dreams are made of as far as I'm concerned...

My favourite Christmas fair of all though is the one that takes place (usually) at All Saints Hall along Hastings Old Town. It usually costs 50p to go in but for that you get a ticket that entitles you to a free cup of coffee and a mince pie. They have a HUGE raffle - oh how I wish I could win the hamper (I have always loved the idea of winning a huge Christmas hamper - so Christmassy!) - and loads of fun stalls selling all the usual things. 

The best stall of all for me though is the £1 a go 'win a mystery present every time' stall. I save up each year to be able to have a real bash at that stall and usually end up spending £15 - 20 on it. The 'presents' are always worth a pound and as I save all my winning parcels until Christmas Day they give me plenty to wonder about sat there under the Christmas Tree until Dec 25th at home. Sometimes I win a big cuddly toy. Those are not usually wrapped up and so I often approach someone at the fair who has a little one and offer it to them. I have had some nice smiles and friendly chats with people because of doing something like that over the years and that for me is what makes Christmas special.

This year the fair is to take place on the 16th of November (a bit earlier than usual) at St Clements Church in High Street. The reason for the move apparently is because the interior of St Clements has been recently refurbished and so the Christmas fair is seen as a way to celebrate that and show the new interior off. The fun starts at 10am and goes on until 2pm. I will miss the intimate nature of All Saints Hall I have to say but St Clements is bigger inside so as long as it is festively decorated it will be a bit more comfortable at least. See you there!

St Clements Church