Sarah Joyce and daughter Corinne, 8, of Wiscasset checked out the handknit items fellow Wiscasset resident Joan Reed was selling in the Wiscasset Community Center gym Saturday.

Asked about her knitting, Reed said it keeps her busy. “I can't just sit and do nothing,” she added. 

Wiscasset Parks and Recreation brought back a holiday fair for the first time in years and several months after a vintage-themed, springtime fair.

That one did so well, the department scheduled the Holiday Market and got 35 vendors, a number that exceeded Parks and Recreation Director Lisa Thompson’s expectations. Midway into the event, Thompson said attendance was somewhat light, but she figured the fair had competition with other fairs and holiday events. The staff debriefs after every event, on what went well and what could be better; she said the date could be looked at, although these days the fair season starts early. So it might be hard to find a weekend free of other fairs, Thompson explained.

Thompson went around to vendors’ tables with a microphone as she introduced each vendor and ran door prizes they offered from their goods.  

Sarah and Corinne Joyce bought a couple of cat ornaments. And Sarah Joyce said the tables full of goods were giving her and her daughter  a lot of ideas for thoughtful Christmas gifts. She said she was glad the town did the fair. “I think it was time they brought it back,” she said, smiling.

WCC’s After School Adventures had a table to benefit the program. Kristy Lincoln, manning the table with Wiscasset Middle High School exchange student Muhammad Khalique of Pakistan, said the children in the program made the snowman gift tags and made snow-measuring sticks out of paint-stirring sticks. 

The department has already set next year’s vintage fair for April 6, Thompson said.