Christmas Markets galore over the next couple of weeks in Hexham - come along and shop local!

- The Christmas Fair is at Hexham this weekend in the Wentworth Saturday and Sunday 10-4
- Corbridge Middle School has a Christmas Fair 1-3 this Saturday
- Henshaw School have a Christmas fair between 11-4 Sunday 30th in the Village Hall
- Kielder Castle has a Christmas Fair on Sunday December 6th between 11-4
I will blog more on the Hexham Christmas Market on December 12th / 13th, which is the biggest of them all, and which takes place both in the town and around the Abbey, next week.

Christmas Card Saturday

I purchase and then hand sign over 800 christmas cards - but I could not do this without the dedicated team that assemble each year over a long Saturday afternoon in November. That Saturday is this coming Saturday. After my morning surgeries I will join the team in Humshaugh when we stuff, label and stamp the cards I have signed. We gather around a big table. Some of the team involved are in their 80's. All are full of wisdom, steeped in Northumberland history, and the chat as the light fades, and the task ends, is always fascinating.
It is an event that I always look forward to, as for me it signifies that Christmas is not far away. The cards once signed, labelled and stamped in a military operation are then taken to the post office for the first week in December.

Christmas Shopping in Hexham

Christmas shopping begins in earnest this weekend in Northumberland. This Thursday 8th November through to the weekend Brocksbushes Christmas Fayre takes place next to the Corbridge roundabout.
Hexham Christmas market is on December 8th with 70 stalls, carol singing a farmers market, the abbey fayre and so much more. See: http://www.hexhamcommunity.net/pages/visit-hexham/christmas-market.php
In between these 2 dates is the Red Cross Hexham Christmas Fair on the 28-29th November at Hexham Racecourse. I know many of the stall holders at all three events and all are very good and highly recommended. As always shop local as you use it or lose it!
Finally several wonderful women in Northumberland have decided to bare "nearly all" in support of the Great North Air Ambulance. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227016/Foxy-hunting-ladies-bareback-naked-calendar-riding-tack-save-modesty.html
Their calendar features heavily in this weeks Courant. I won the Tynedale point to point in 2009 and know many of the women who are featured. They are certainly very impressive in their ideas for raising money for the GNAA. I walked the pennine way. Something tells me they may raise more cash!
I wish them well with their fundraising and am certain that the calendars will be selling well both at the Xmas markets in Northumberland but also country wide.