#pexmas

SINCE IT LAUNCHED IN 2011, PEXMAS CHRISTMAS MARKET HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS A FIRM FESTIVE FAVOURITE IN SE15.

With this year’s market set to feature new makers’ workshops and a visit from Santa, co-founder Sarah Taylor says it will be the biggest one yet

WORDS: HELEN GRAVES PHOTO: LIMA CHARLIE

It’s December, which means you’ll probably have noticed the signs for Pexmas, Peckham’s annual Christmas market full of festive food, drink and locally produced crafts. According to co-founder Sarah Taylor, it’s where you’ll find “everything you want to tick off your Christmas list”.

The market began in 2011 and it’s now “bigger than ever”, despite one new arrival to the team causing significant disruption. “I had a baby at the very end of last year and it’s delightful and all, but also quite time consuming,” Sarah says. 

“I also decided that this would be the year to expand Pexmas, because you know, I’m nuts, so we’re adding in workshops. We also heard that Santa would like to visit Peckham this year. Of course we thought we’d better invite him to Pexmas, because where else could he really hang out? We’re making him a little grotto.”

It’s heart-warming to see the growth of a local market that began as “two friends wanting to do something a bit fun at Christmas”. The first market took place at The Dye House on Nutbrook Street.

“It was just lovely, loads of people came and we were really surprised,” Sarah says. “Everyone said, ‘You’re going to do another one aren’t you?’ And we were like, ‘Er, we suppose we better had, then!’ It just kind of snowballed from there.

“We did the summer markets and Pexmas every year. We did them in the Liberal Club, we did them on Holly Grove and we finally moved to Warwick Gardens, which is just the most sensible site. There’s more space for people to mill about and there’s just something special about the outside at Christmas. Plus there’s the really fun bit where you get to have heart attacks in the week running up to it thinking, ‘Is it going to rain? Is it going to snow?’”

Last year the weather was definitely not on their side. “We had what I refer to – with a big smile on my face – as ‘festive’ weather,” Sarah says. “It snowed, it rained, there was ice. So this year I’m basically tenting the whole thing. Who knows how that will go – it’s a slightly different look but it’s still essentially the same market.”

The challenges don’t end with the weather however, as Sarah explains: “Everyone thinks it’s the council that runs it or owns it, or that we’re making loads of money. We don’t. If we break even we are doing really well.

“A lot goes into putting on an event in a park. It’s entirely self-funded and we don’t like to put the stallholder fees up and up every year, because the nice thing is that Pexmas started with a mix of established businesses and new enterprises from local people and that’s still the mixture.

“We’ve got some traders who still trade with us who say, ‘Oh, you were our very first market!’ It’s so nice to be a very small part of other local people’s stories and we don’t want to lose that, because that’s what makes it different, something that’s part of this community rather than a cookie-cutter design that could happen anywhere.”

She also extends the market on a consultancy basis, helping create satellite markets elsewhere in London. The Pexmas brand was partly behind this summer’s Camberwell Fair.

“The crux is about increasing social capital, so we take on community engagement projects, whether that’s with a group of businesses or a geographical local area. Stuff that just makes life a bit nicer, where you get to meet people within that group, forge connections and maybe you’ll find a new local business to support or a service you want to be part of. The more links you make within your community the happier you are.”

The market is unique then, with a clear social conscience. “Unlike other markets that specialise a little bit, our thing is everything as long as it’s independent. We work with designer-makers, food people, small companies and people who import things, so we get people who support communities in other parts of the world.

“You can get stuff for your Christmas table, you can get pickles, chutneys, charcuterie, cheeses; you can pick up gifts for, hopefully, every member of the family, you can support community projects and charities and there’s nice stuff for yourself, baubles, decorations – and this year you can actually come and make those as well.

“We’re doing Christmas wreaths and things you might want to give as gifts, so London Terrariums are coming to do a workshop and the Social Circle are making pom-pom garlands. There’s street food. There’s 100 stalls a day and about half of those or just over are different each day.”

So what’s next for Pexmas? “I need to figure out how to actually remain in business with a baby! Pexmas will stay on the books for as long as I can physically muster the energy.

“I aired the idea with my partner that maybe I shouldn’t do Pexmas last year or this year, now that it’s just me who runs the company, and he said, ‘You do realise that if you don’t do Pexmas, we’ll have to move?’

“And I was like, ‘Really?’ He was like, ‘You’ve got to do it – everyone will be so disappointed.’ So I said fine. It’s not curing disease or anything, we’re just making a nice little market in our small corner of the world that does some nice things for other small businesses. Oh, and we have really great mulled wine!”

Pexmas returns on December 12 with a brand new location – and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever.  

The popular Christmas market, which is now in its fourth year, celebrates the start of the festive season with shopping, carolling and feasting. It’s described as a “showcase of local artists, street food, designer-makers, craftspeople and choirs”. 

This year’s event will be held in Warwick Gardens and is expected to attract some 2,000 visitors. It will feature up to 100 stalls selling sweet treats, homeware, kids’ stuff, Christmas cupboard items, cards, wrapping paper, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and accessories.  

There will be pop-up food stalls from Kitchen 54, Hock ’n’ Roll, The Athenian, House of Dodo and more; and an on-site bar will serve mulled wine and craft beer from local specialists including The Beer Shop London. 

Three festive markets are coming to Peckham and Nunhead on one weekend in December – with street-food, shopping, creative classes and choirs.

Pexmas will feature up to 70 stalls in Holly Grove park, selling homeware, toys, cakes, Christmas wrapping, textiles, ceramics and jewellery. Traders will range from the South East Cakery & Brownie Bar to Garudio Studiage.

A selection of street-food stalls will include Banh Banh, which serves Vietnamese food, and the Salt Beef Bros, who will offer slow-cooked, salt-beef sandwiches garnished with gherkins and mustard.

The Dulwich Folk Choir and other musical groups will perform during the day, some collecting donations for their chosen charities. According to the organisers, singalongs are encouraged. December 13, 11am-7pm.

The £3 Christmas Bazaar is taking place at the Nunhead Salvation Army building and Nunhead Green. The bazaar, which bills itself as a “Christmas fair with an arty twist”, has an emphasis on community rather than consumption.

It will feature stocking-fillers, bric-a-brac, cakes, cards, pottery, miniature artworks and more. The Ivy House knitting club, Woolly Mondays, will attend, and there will be comedy from Nunhead-based Pull the Other One and Lewis Schaffer.

The Salvation Army brass band and Nunhead Community Choir will perform, and shops on Nunhead Lane – including fishmonger FC Soper, butcher HA Smith and Son and AG Flowers – will offer special £3 deals in-store. December 13, 12-6pm.

The Crafty Fox market is returning to the CLF Art Café at the Bussey Building this year, promising visitors “shopping with soul”. It will host more than 100 unique stalls over two days, where shoppers can buy unusual gifts directly from the makers.

Items on sale will include prints and textiles from artist Zoe Burt and wooden jewellery by Anna Wiscombe. There will be live art in the courtyard, festive drinks and DJs spinning an eclectic mix of tunes.

A series of creative craft workshops will see Afroretro demonstrate how to make paper decorations and cards using traditional Ugandan materials; and there will be block-printing and jewellery-making classes. December 13 and 14, 12-6pm.