Christmas Faire Old Favorites Coming To You In A New Way

DEEP RIVER — With a smile on her face and some newly acquired computer skills under her belt, Andrea Chiappa, a member of the First Congregational Church of Deep River Ye Olde Christmas Faire committee, is happy to be bringing the fair to the community this year, via a virtual outlet.

“It was important to us to make sure that we could still bring people, at least, a small part of the fair,” said Chiappa. “People look forward to getting their homemade breads and wreaths and other goods there every year and we wanted to be able to bring some normalcy to this crazy year while still being safe and socially distanced.”

She added, “We knew it was going to be a lot of work and it has been, but it’s worth it. People come to this event religiously every year and so many people have already said how happy they are that they can still get the things from the fair they look forward to. That makes me really happy.”

Instead of transforming the innards of the First Congregational Deep River church into a scene from a perfect Charles Dickens holiday, the online fair will be a several day event, beginning on Wednesday December 2 and running through Friday December 4, culminating with a live stream event on Facebook, Saturday December 5. The live event will include a visit from Old Saint Nick himself, followed by the Saturday afternoon drive-up, pick-up of goods. (Volunteer runners, adorned in appropriate masks and gloves will deliver purchased goods to cars, as they drive up. There will be no online credit card payments, so checks and cash will also be taken at time of pick-up).

Alternatively, there will be a delivery system in place to deliver goods to those who cannot, or prefer not to come to the church for pick up.

“I’m sure the live stream will be a comical event, but it will definitely be fun and amusing and I hope everyone enjoys it,” said Chiappa, who explained that in preparation for the event, the inside of the Church was in a state of chaos, in a good way.

Sneak peaks of some of the goods that are for sale already yielded healthy sales Chiappa explained.

“We put a sneak peek of hot chocolate bombs on our Facebook page and we sold 30 of them within 30 seconds. We also sold several hand decorated wreaths and over 60 loaves of bread we make here at the church. This is great and says so much about our supportive communities.”

Two thousand and twenty marks the 54th annual Faire event, which is one of the three main fundraisers for the Church each year. The other two include the annual rummage sale, held on the Church green each year in August, which was cancelled this year and parking for the annual Fife and Drum Muster in July, which was also cancelled this year due to COVID.

“We aren’t expecting to make as much [money] as we have in the past, at this year’s Faire, but every little bit helps,” said Chiappa, who explained that proceeds from the event are used to help fund an array of Church programs such as the Church’s mission program, the annual midnight run to New York City to bring clothing and food to the homeless and the weekly Thursday night soup kitchen at the Church, which has had a huge jump in participation since the virus first erupted.

“As always there will be some wonderful goods at the Faire this year, even though it is online. We have such a talented community of artisans who make such beautiful things, we are very lucky and we hope that everyone finds what they are looking for,” said Chiappa.

For more information go to www.32auctions.com/yeoldechristmasfaire.