The Story so Far
17 years ago, I had a small greeting card business, and having been inspired by visiting the famous German Christmas Markets, decided to try and create something similar in Kent, to be able to sell my cards.
It was a real labour of love, putting a brand new event together, where there were genuinely lovely Christmas gifts to buy – some beautifully hand-crafted, others cleverly sourced.
Our very first Christmas Market took place in October 2006 in a tiny church hall, with about 8 traders participating, selling a variety of unusual Christmas gifts. The response was overwhelming and our visitors were queueing right down the High Street to visit our little market, not to mention to sample our delicious mulled wine!
It was then a very easy decision to expand the event into our very large, modern hall here in Elham, enabling us to welcome even more talented traders and visitors too! With a team of volunteers helping to welcome our visitors, working hard in the kitchen serving delicious Christmas treats, as well as selling raffle tickets (we always have a wonderful raffle), it soon became firmly established in the Christmas events calendar – for both visitors and traders alike. With a beautifully festive atmosphere with mulled wine, mince-pies and Christmas music in a hall bedecked with winter greenery and hundreds of fairy-lights, everyone is suddenly ‘in the mood’ for Christmas.
From our humble beginnings, the amount raised has steadily grown from an initial £600 increasing every year to a brilliant total of over £3200 in 2022, helping the Pilgrims Hospices to continue their sterling work.
During lockdown we put together our first website and managed to hold our event ‘virtually’, as we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to ‘visit’ some of those lovely traders, even though they couldn’t do it in person. We had a brilliant Prize Draw put together by the lovely Gill and me, and managed to raise an incredible, jaw-dropping amount of over £3000 through Raffle Ticket Sales and our JustGiving Page.
Thankfully, in 2022, we were able once again to have a ‘live’ event. You can read a little biography of our lovely local businesses sharing their story or giving information about their products. You will also find their contact details – so do get in touch with the traders, especially if you are unable to attend the event. You can call them, email them or look at their websites, FB or Etsy pages and we are sure you will find some fantastic gift ideas.
There are also some special ‘featured traders’ who may not be taking part in the ‘live’ event, but are very much supporting the market on the virtual platform.
All of the traders mentioned here are booked into the 2023 event, which will be happening on Thursday 26th October 2023, so it will give you a good idea of what to look forward to this year.
We would like to raise as much money as possible for the Pilgrims Hospices, so do head over to their page, where you will find out more about them, an opportunity to donate and the chance to WIN one of our incredible Christmas Hampers, full of wonderful seasonal fare and treats, to pamper yourself and the whole family. What are you waiting for??
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