On Saturday I lent a hand (or two) to Mercato Metropolitano in Mayfair for their Christmas activity day. The morning’s event was Christmas bauble decorating, and in the afternoon another GoodGymmer was going to help out with Christmas biscuit icing!

I met the team on the terrace, as we had to be outside for social distancing purposes. Although we were fortunate that it didn’t rain, it was still quite breezy and it was definitely a bit chilly. The team there looked after me though and made sure I had an extra jumper, and put the heaters on while we got set up.

We were expecting about 16 kids in two sessions. I started to panic, as the other person signed up for this task had cancelled, and the thought of supervising 8 children with acrylic paints and pots of water scared me. Scared me even more with the added wind - the table cloths were blowing all over the shop and were only being kept down by the standard large bottles of hand sanitiser.

We sorted out the decorations, a mixture of baubles and wooden shapes to paint. We ripped cardboard into smaller pieces to make palettes, and set up cups of water to clean the brushes. Then I was left to it...

The first girl arrived, and was soon joined by her shy little brother who saw how much fun she was having. Paints were squirted out, and we had great fun mixing the colours we needed. Another family had arrived with two cousins, and I set them up too with a present and a tree to decorate each, as well as two baubles apiece.

The kids all did a fantastic job, with some excellent brush skills and we even managed to keep the glitter under control. Even Mum and Dad got involved! I think one of the mums was enjoying the craft more than the kids! Sadly, only four children turned up, which was a real shame as the team at Mercato had done such a fab job of organising everything and making sure we were covid safe. The children who did turn up (and their parents) all had a wonderful time.

The baubles had been hanging on trees to dry in the wind, and the families made sure they had all their decorations before saying a big thank you and setting off. My job now was to tidy up - the painty tablecloths and messy cardboard went into the bins. The mucky water was tipped away and the brushes cleaned.

It was then time to head off, complete with my very own GoodGym star (because I am a GoodGym star).