On what turned out to be a bright, mild winter´s day after fears of rain, (it really does shine on the righteous!), we held our 2nd Xalo Christmas fayre on the rastro on Sunday 30th November.
Over 110 stallholders selling craft items and car boot ¨stuff¨attended, the most we have ever welcomed, and we thank everyone for their support. There was a fabulous selection of goods to buy from Christmas decorations, art work, cards, knitted goods, toys, artisan breads etc. and all the stalls looked very festive. The home crafted items were very impressive and clearly a lot of time had been spent making and baking! We hope you all sold plenty and enjoyed the day.
We were delighted with the amount of visitors to the fayre, it was our busiest yet, and great to welcome all nationalities. Thank you all for your support.
The bbq, bar, tea and coffee stall and cake/savoury stall run by us did a roaring trade, the delicious mulled wine and Christmas cake being in great demand. We virtually sold out of everything, and a special thanks to our runner, Neil, who did an excellent delivery service to the stall holders which was much appreciated. The bbq was a treat and very popular thanks to Sean Smith.
We were very lucky to enjoy 3 lots of super live music/entertainment from the fabulous Forever Young, the excellent Jukes ukele group, who raised 80 euros for us in donations, and Jo´s Dutch choir who arrived in a stunning open top vintage car. All sang their hearts out and visitors clearly enjoyed all the music. We are so grateful for your support.
Santa was there as always with his helper elf and it was lovely to see the delight on children´s faces. Santa and his elf were driven through the market in the car and were a very popular photo opportunity.
Yolanda kindly ran her free art table for children to colour in a fabulous Christmas canvas and lots of children clearly enjoyed this.
Whilst the purpose of the fayre is to raise funds for our u3a Goodwill team to be able to donate to local charities in need, we also see it as an important community event for the valley and are proud to keep the tradition alive. We also allow local charities to have free stalls to raise funds for their own causes and we are pleased that ARC, Paws, Caring for Cats, Jalon Valley Help, Caritas, Calpe cat charity and Daadi were all present. From those we have spoken to we know several thousand euros was raised for excellent causes which we are delighted about.
We raised the fantastic sum of 2535 euros which will allow us to be generous when distributing the 2025 charity funds to local charities in need.
A huge thankyou to everyone who very kindly helped at the fayre, (you are stars!), to everyone who came, supported, spent money and enjoyed the day. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. It is a huge undertaking but the
Goodwill team and helpers are simply amazing!
Merry Christmas to you all and we wish you a peaceful, healthy and happy 2026.