Unexpected start to St John’s Christmas Fair

SIDMOUTH’S St John’s School had a ‘lovely afternoon’ for their Christmas Fair last Saturday, complete with Santa in his grotto, stalls, gifts for sale, games and activities.

Niel Powell making sweets at St Johns school christmas fair. Photo by Terry Ife ref shs 8660-48-13TI To order your copy of this photograph go to www.sidmouthherald.co.uk and click on myphotos24 - Credit: Archant

But the event – which helped to raise funds for St John’s PTFA to support projects around the school – got off to an unexpected start… with a fire alarm!

“Yes!” said PTFA chair Louise Mayor. “It went off about a quarter of an hour before we were about to open the fair to the public. It made everybody aware that we were just about to open, I suppose.”

Thankfully, it was a false alarm and the event opened fairly soon afterwards.

“It was a lovely afternoon,” said Louise. “It’s the fourth year we’ve done it. The junior school children had stalls, and we had 30 external stallholders as well.”

The pupils’ stalls were full of seasonal gifts, while year six had an activity zone with various Christmas-related activities, including sweet-making.

“It was fantastic,” said Louise. “Everybody enjoyed it, there was a great atmosphere, plenty for the children to do and hopefully it was good for local businesses as well.”