A Christmas Conscious Market @ The Barn at Barra Castle 28.11.2021

Back again, this time for a special Christmas Market and what a weekend it was!

I think we may have picked the worst weekend to host an event! Aberdeenshire was hit by Storm Arwen and most of the shire was without power for many days. The snow was heavy, temperatures plummeted and trees had fallen in the storm blocking roads and damaging cars and buildings.

Fortunately, with the help from the staff at Barra and my wonderful volunteers and the hard work and commitment from the stallholders, we pulled together and got the event running as planned! I am forever grateful to everyone who came along on the day, it wasn’t easy for a lot of you but I am so pleased we were still able to make it a success.

To get us into the Christmas spirit, we made this event extra special. As the snow fell outside, we had the mulled wine pouring at the bar, a cosy lounge to relax in, 30 small businesses to meet and two festive workshops to take part in. Whilst we had to make some adaptions due to the storm, it was still festive treat for the eyes with some of our stallholders going all out with their beautifully styled stalls and Barra’s huge Christmas trees and lights decorating the rooms.

Our workshops which were run by Hollie Berries Flowers and Bad Gal Boocha, were a huge success. Each guest received a complimentary mulled wine and and vegan mincemeat pie as well as a Slow Living Events branded tote bag filled with gifts from our small businesses.

In addition to that, we also ran a charity raffle in aid of Aberdeen Cyrenians. Our stallholders kindly donated a prize each for the raffle and we raised £560 for charity! We are so pleased with how it went and the prizes were a great early Christmas treat for the lucky winners!