crystal luxmore

I only go to church once a year – to pay homage at the Christmas bazaar.  On that blessed day, musty church basements are filled to the rim as revellers line up to buy  homemade gingerbread, pies, jams and relishes of every flavour, handicrafts and used tat.  What bliss!

This year I even volunteered (a little).  The night before the bazaar at Eden United Church, my sister asked me if I wanted to help box cookies.  Sound cutesy?  Not quite.  The operation is done every year with military like precision by my sisters and a few other grade-school teachers, they’re a well-oiled machine. 

Cookies came in fast and furious at 7pm.  We carefully packed a selection of two dozen homemade cookies into 185 white boxes.  The church’s annual “cookie walk” sells out every year.  All that yummy, home-baked goodness for $7 a box, it’s no wonder.

Turns out volunteering does have its rewards.  I snagged this one-of-a-kind hand-knit sweater by shopping the night before the sale. 

I was hoping for some fabulous finds at the jewelery table, but nothing stood out. If you have kids though, the knitwear at these bazaars is truly precious.  But what I like best is the warm, fuzzy feeling I get from buying from the wrinkly ‘church ladies.’  “You made their day,” my sister said after I gushed over the pink sweater I picked up.  Looks like I may have to go to church next Sunday as well.  The church down the street is having their Christmas bazaar,  and I hear the shortbread is heaven-sent.