This weekend sees the start of a whole festive season of Christmas events: There’s the Crouch End Festival Christmas Market on Saturday,

taking place on the Town Hall Green with craft stalls, festive food, warming drinks, plus live music – from 10am to 5pm.

And there are more hand made presents to be found inside the Town Hall all weekend in the Etsy Christmas Market.

Meanwhile, on Muswell Hill, there’s going to be a local first – the Friends of St James Square were successful in their bid for funding for a Christmas tree ( congratulations to them and a big thank you too as I am sure we will all enjoy it). ‘The plan is that we will have a gorgeous tree each year, lit up throughout the holiday season. On Saturday 3rd December 1pm-5pm the tree will be lit up for the first time at a celebration in St James Square – which we are calling A Very Merry Muswell. The event will take place on the same day as Small Business Saturday – a UK wide initiative to encourage people to ‘shop local’.’ We hope it is a huge success.

If you wake on Sunday morning feeling like you really must shop a bit more (locally of course) you could dip into the Antique Collector’s Fair at Ally Pally – buying used stuff helps the planet so antiques should be on the responsible shopper’s list. Or maybe, like me, you just like them.
Happy weekend.