Christmas fair in Vernon only allows trades, no cash

Christmas shopping without spending a dime that's the idea behind a new seasonal fair in Vernon, B.C. on Thursday,where people are bartering for items by offering their own goods or services.

"I'm really hoping that we have a shift in the way people think about money... and maybe just have a different perspective," said organizer Jaye.

Coward set up the Holiday Barter Festin the warehouse of her businessFarm Bound, which distributesboxed organic foods to customers.

She said local artisans were invited to come and set up their goods on a table at the fair, but anyone is welcome as long as they don't use cash, and have something they can barter with.

"If you have just a small amount of items you don't have to set up a table, you can just bring a basket or a box full of them and walk around and do some trading that way," she said.

Inspired by artisan 'subculture'

Coward said she and her business partner, who are both artisans themselves, were inspired to organize the event because they had seen this kind of bartering taking place between artisans at Christmas fairs.

"There's kind of a subculture with artisans at Christmas fairs," she said.

"After the fairs are over they do lots of trading and it's really neat because you always end up with items that you would maybe never spend cash on."

Coward said that while some traders might want to fix a dollar value to their product, she wants people to think beyond "that paradigm of, 'It's worth $10, or it's worth $20.'"

She said someone could offer a service for example, a registered massage therapist could offer an hour of their time to massage that person who is offering them a product they want.

While the first rule at the fair is no cash, the second is for everyone to honour each other's decisions on whether or not to accept a trade.

"It usually just starts with a warm conversation and an appreciation for the other person's work, and you just bring it up and you just say, "I really like this item that you made, would you be open to a trade?' And sometimes people say yes, and sometimes people say no," she said.

"But I find most of the time, if you've made a personal connection with that person, they're really interested in your work too."

The Holiday Barter Fest is open to the public until 7 p.m. PT on Thursday, Dec. 17.

To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled: No cash, barter-only Christmas fair takes place in Vernon