Oxford Botanic Garden Christmas Fair offers artisan products, unique food and drink and lively entertainment in beautiful surroundings
Oxford Botanic Garden’s Christmas Fair returns with the launch of a new perfume – Metaphysic.
More than 50 local businesses, creatives, and communities will provide a weekend of festive shopping, hospitality, entertainment and activities on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday 8.
The Oxford Botanic Garden Christmas Fair has become a highlight in the calendar, enjoyed by many for the original artisan products on sale, the unique food and drink available, and the lively entertainment in beautiful surroundings.
This year visitors have the opportunity to discover a wide range of bespoke gifts, from ceramics to jewellery, to foods and drinks, to fashion - including Oxford Botanic Garden’s first ever perfume, Metaphysic, inspired by the scents and smells of the famous garden.
Metaphysic is a complex eau de parfum that captures the changing scents of the Garden through the year, imbuing a sense of wellbeing that comes from connecting with nature in the UK’s oldest botanic garden. It has been created in collaboration with artisanal English perfumier 4160Tuesdays.
The perfume is inspired by plants grown in the former Physic Garden since the 1640s, and has notes of kumquat and bergamot, layers of elegant rose, magnolia and lily, and a warm autumnal woody base of frankincense and amber.
It will launch at the Christmas Fair on December 7.
Following the success of last year’s event, two marquees will play host to a range of local craftspeople, suppliers, and producers, and delicious food and drink. There will be live music and theatre performances, and plenty of activities for children to enjoy.
The Oxford Botanic Garden shop will be open all weekend, along with pop-up stalls from the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum. Hospitality will be provided by The Conservatory Bar, Crafty Belle Crumpets and Crepes, Jericho Coffee Traders, Horsebox Coffee, Veni & Dough, and Fallow and Field.
Live entertainment will come from Oxford bands Hot Crumpets and Horns of Plenty on Saturday, and jazz vocalist Fleur Stevenson on Sunday.
WhatNot Theatre will present ‘Mother Christmas’ in their magical grotto on both days.
Botanical folklorist Natty Mark Samuels, founder of Oxford’s African School and the author of ‘The Encyclopaedia of Rootical Folklore’, will host a series of interactive, drop-in workshops, celebrating the plants of the Caribbean with costumes, cuisine and musical instruments.
The Friends of Oxford Botanic Garden will lay on a Tombola; a Christmas Pudding Trail will guide Fair-goers through the Garden’s glasshouses and flowerbeds, and visitors will also be encouraged to participate in The Tree Council’s MistleGo mistletoe survey.
Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden Simon Hiscock says: “We are delighted to be hosting our famous Christmas Fair again, with the Garden providing the perfect seasonal backdrop to showcase and support a wide range of artisan gifts. There’s something for everyone of all ages to enjoy at the Fair. We look forward to welcoming visitors to experience a unique weekend of festive shopping, entertainment and engagement.
“Visitors to our 400-year old Garden, founded as a physic garden for teaching students herbal medicine, regularly comment on the incredible aromas they experience during their visit, from the bold scent of roses to the delicate fragrance of lilies, to the heady smell of citrus blossom. Developing our very first perfume, Metaphysic, was an opportunity to capture this sensory experience. Metaphysic will evoke memories of the Garden long after your visit.”
Ticket prices and box office adult £8, concession (Friends, over-65s, disabled visitors and accompanying carers, students) £7, Under-16s £1.
Oxford Botanic Garden is situated in Rose Lane, Oxford OX1 4AZ near Magdalen Bridge.
It opened in 1621 originally as the Oxford Physic Garden and is the oldest botanic garden in the UK, and home to more than 5,000 different plant species.
Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum’s mission is to use its living collections to communicate to the widest possible audience how our future depends on plants. www.obga.ox.ac.uk