The Monroe County Fairgrounds hosted its 10th anniversary Christmas Fair on Saturday.
This year, the fair featured over 70 vendors spread out between a few outdoor spaces — the Community Building, the 4-H Building and Draper Earls Auditorium. Classic holiday items were for sale, including blankets, winter clothing, wooden signs, candles, jewelry, ornaments and stuffed animals. Other booths sold personalized gifts, such as custom water bottles and stained glass. There were a number of other amenities, including food trucks, various small Christmas light displays, a Santa Claus, a $500 Visa gift card giveaway and an area for families to take photos together.
Madison Wayherd has been selling custom tumblers and mousepads for two. Wayherd said the crowd has been very consistent throughout the years.
“Most of the time, people will remember your vendor booth, and they’ll come back,” she said.
Community could be seen not only by the below-market prices for handmade items, but also in the time most vendors spent putting up Christmas-themed decorations in their booths and friendly interactions with customers.There were several times customers and vendors recognized one another and stopped to talk about how they were doing.
Wayherd said what she liked most was how the fair brought people together.
“We have a good diversity,” she said, mentioning the many kinds of different people the fair attracts. “I think (it) is pretty cool, that we can all get along and make everybody happy. That’s one of the reasons I like personalizing things.”
Rachel Bernhardt, another vendor, was selling a variety of honey-based products, peanut butter, loose leaf tea, and other themed items from the local Kilted Bee Farms.
“(The Christmas fair) seems to bring a lot of people together. Everyone is very friendly, they seem very comfortable. It’s neat to see everyone coming together,” Bernhardt said. “Having a place to (sell your wares) where people are interested in participating (is really neat).”
Both Wayherd and Bernhardt said that their overall experience with the fair was very positive, citing the strong community and the prevalence of handmade and local items. Fairgoers seemed to have similarly positive experiences.
For many at the fair, it was a great place for a weekend family outing, with many groups consisting of children, parents and grandparents.
“So far (the experience has) been nice; we got a couple of things, and it's really just to get out of the house with the kids,” one attendee, Anthony Long, said.
The date for the next annual Christmas fair has not yet been determined, but several more Christmas-themed events are scheduled to take place at the Monroe County Fairgrounds in the weeks leading up to the holiday. More information can be found on their website.
