We went to the Exclusively Highlands Christmas Fair at Crathes Castle today. It’s a food and craft market that runs every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas at different locations around Scotland, usually castles. They sell only stuff that’s made in Scotland which especially appeals to me so we go every year.
This year I thought it would be quiet because of the plague and the weather – it rained all day – but I couldn’t have got it more wrong. There were queues to the carpark, then queues to get into the market, then queues to get to the café. I’m sure the entire population of Aberdeen was there. I’ve never seen the carpark full at Crathes Castle before. The staff in the gift shop told me yesterday was even busier. I’m happy for all the artisans selling their goods because they will have had a tough year this year.
Despite the queues and rain we had a really lovely time. We managed to get a few Christmas presents and I also discovered some new delicious vegan chocolate that’s made in Scotland called Prissy Queen of Desserts. They make a vegan version of a bounty chocolate bar which I used to love before I became vegan. There were also lots of other stalls including tweed, art, jewellery, wooden products and more.
Crathes Castle is set in a beautiful estate with lots of lovely walks. The gardens and castle were both open too.
Months and months ago I bought a Barbour wax cotton jacket from the charity shop. I couldn’t believe someone had discarded it so I snapped it up. It needed rewaxing so after watching some YouTube videos and purchasing a new tub of Barbour wax (you can buy it at John Lewis) I rewaxed it. Today I got to test it out in the rain and it kept me wonderfully dry.
My camera sometimes takes little videos and adds music. I’m not sure how or why it does that but I pulled a couple of faces at it today and it put together this looping clip.
rachel.blog 
I don’t think I would enjoy the crowd. Love the bonkers loop. 🤪
Yes I wasn’t too happy about that but I was pleased for the small businesses.
Are my eyes deceiving me, are some people forgetting to social distance?
People overall were pretty good with the social distancing. That’s why the queues were so long – because of the distance between each household group. Household groups themselves don’t have to social distance. That said, it can be tricky to give 2m space at times. For instance, if you’re paying for something you can’t hand over money and take the product from 2m away. Our arms are just not long enough for that. They had also made changes to how the fair was run. In previous years all the stalls were in the castle but this year it was outside with the exception of a small number of stalls that were inside a building but people were limited in number as to how many could go in. The shop also limited the number of people and the café was all take away only now.
This dreadful disease is fuelling so much isolation and fear. I’m not immune from those symptoms. The fear is so tangible when out and the isolation so loud when inside.
Yes, so true. It felt just a little bit normal to have a Christmas fair but I just hope there isn’t a big outbreak here in two weeks as a result.
How I would have loved to have gone there! It looks like you had an amazing time.
It was lovely and so good to do something a little bit Christmassy right now.
I’m enjoying some Christmas themed cookery shows . . . 🙂
That definitely counts as Christmassy. I’ve started listening to Christmas carols which my husband is unimpressed with but the kids love it.