The Wilsonville Civitan Club had its fourth annual Wilsonville Civitan Christmas Bazaar on the first Saturday of December at the United Methodist Church. It lasted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Civitan Club members cooked and served breakfast of pancakes, bacon and sausage, and members from the church made wonderful vegetable soup and hot dogs for lunch.

They also had a bake sale full of sweet treats. The cooks for the day were Eva Boyles, Skeet Phelps, Joyce Saxon, Pat Powers, Linda Bell, Jo Mann, Nancy Smith, Kay Ray, Fran Varin and Joel Trimble.

The Civitan Club uses money earned at the bazaar to deliver 40 meals to shut-ins each month.

Santa even stopped by for the day to takes pictures with the kids and remember their Christmas wishes. Jason Harrison first got this started with the Civitan Club when they began letting children visit Santa and have pictures done outside.

Now Anne Phelps, Joan Harris and Samantha Harris also help arrange this, and it has grown so much they have it indoors so the weather doesn’t affect the event.

There are many talented and creative people in the community who come with their booths set up to sell wonderful items for the holidays.

Upon first entering the church, one of the first booths to see was Cheryl Miller’s dainty jewelry with all kinds of Christmas designs, and almost everyone wanted to leave wearing some. You also couldn’t miss Mary Turgeon’s booth full of a variety of handmade items including Christmas aprons. Mary’s sister, Sally Matter, was even able to come from Tennessee to join the event with her sewed goodies, too.

Jane Bailey, the director at the Columbiana Library, was there with beautiful hand-knit treasures. She made matching Alabama or Auburn sweaters, hats, mittens and scarves for boys and girls.

Melanie Cooper also came with handmade crochet and knit gifts like gorgeous infant dresses, booties, blankets and home décor with personalized names on them.

Rachael Smith came with adorable monogram designed towels, sippy cups, burp cloths, bibs, pacifier clips, blankets, diaper bag tags, ribbons, ruffle socks, key rings, and personalized can cozies.

Martha D. Hooks brought a variety of her detailed paintings with many puppy and Chihuahua designs.

She is also very talented in painting precise children’s pictures from photos. Davie Cox was also there selling eye-catching holiday window art and beautiful stained glass window designs.

Everyone was excited to see Sylvia McDonald’s stunning pottery that she hand makes to be food, microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe. She even offers personalized platters, which make great gift ideas.

Jan Edge was there letting everyone sample her tasty homemade Strawberry and Pepper Jelly. Her daughter had a booth beside her, selling her grandmother’s custom made gift baskets with a variety of styles like a “fix it” sewing set, a baby gift set and many other designs. The Southern Women’s Show doesn’t hold a candle to the Christmas Bazaar with great food and good priced specialty items.

The event was a great success, but everyone remembered the great cause.

The Civitan Club raises money through events like this to support the community in different ways like helping out children who want to play sports in the community, and providing and delivering meals to needy families each month.

Kennedy Tolbert, the community columnist for Wilsonville, can be reached at kennedytolbert@bellsouth.net.