By Callum Ludwig
After a successful first edition in 2023, the Yellingbo Christmas Fair is making a return at the start of next month.
The brainchild of the Sheepstation Creek Road Reserve Committee, the event was started last year with the hopes of bringing the community together and giving use to the reserve space.
Secretary of the Sheepstation Creek Road Reserve Committee Merril Brunt said last year’s event absolutely blew their minds.
“Because it was our first one, we weren’t too sure how it was going to go but it was just a beautiful day, it rained during the night and it turned out to be a really nice day,” she said.
“It was well attended, small but well attended and we had different things to suit everybody such as the classic cars but we can’t get the same guy to do it so I’m just putting the feelers out for anybody local that has a classic car if they want to come and show it off.”
This year’s event will have demonstrations from the local Yellingbo CFA and Upper Yarra SES, the return of the classic car show, a showcase from the Yarra Valley Preservation Society, a petting farm, Blacksnake Productions, a roaming wildlife exhibit, a roaming magician from The Dreaming Space, stalls, food vans, raffles, live music, historic photos of the local area and the Yellingbo Primary School and of course, a visit from Santa.
Ms Brunt said the event has been something they wanted to incorporate at the reserve like it did 50 to 60 years ago when it was the old showgrounds.
“People used to come from Gippland and all over the local area to show their animals and win prizes, it was a very big thing held in February to March of the year but we decided why don’t we have Christmas Fair and then it’s a local way for people to grab those last-minute Christmas gifts and just mark the start of the festive season,” she said.
“Because we don’t have the cricket club using it as much now because they’ve amalgamated with Launching Place, the oval’s not being utilised as much as it used to be so we’ve just got to reinvent ourselves.”
The event will be held on Sunday 1 December from 10am to 3pm with Santa arriving at 1.30pm.
There are still openings for anyone who wants to hold a stall or bring along their classic car and anyone interested can get in contact via sheepstationckrdreserve@gmail.com or 0409 979 825.
