It’s a bright Sunday morning and life-size painted figures of gilded angels on wood provide the perfect backdrop to the Childwickbury Christmas fair. In the middle of the courtyard, a huge Christmas tree illuminated with coloured bulbs and decorated with red and gold glittery baubles towers above us; Christmas music jingles in the background and each stable is filled with shoppers.

An old Citroën van is parked further along, covered with poinsettias and roses. Behind it is a stall with hyacinth bulbs planted in neat rows of Victorian teacups on saucers. What I love about this fair is its rustic charm; being here is such a wonderful contrast to shopping on the high street and I stop to admire the twig woodbine angels blowing trumpets.

There’s a stallholder selling handmade log reindeers with friendly faces and big red noses and rather than wanting to buy one I feel as if I’d like to make one; his little Yorkshire terrier is the cutest thing ever, strutting around in a bright red tartan body warmer.

Inside the stables, an abundance of creativity is on display and the merchandise is of a high standard, from watercolours to handmade knitwear. We chat with a trendy jewellery designer. I admire a pair of black and white asymmetrical leather earrings from her latest collection, entitled Morphology; they’re pretty avant-garde and I buy them for my sister, hoping they’ll appeal to her unusual taste.

Whenever I come here, I always visit the milliner and check out his latest display of spectacular hats; he’s hugely talented and also works in many West End theatre productions; he shows me a miniature lion mask that he’s still working on, I love it and he lets me have it at a reduced price.

Just before we leave, my daughter runs ahead towards the food barn. I buy a bag of cinnamon sticks to grate into cake-mixes and onto my cappuccino, but it’s the bakery stall that she has her eye on. There are carrot cup cakes and 'boozy Baileys chocolate cakes' with red macarons perched sideways on top! I bite into the best brownie ever, decorated with edible bronze beads and waves of caramel icing; it’s utterly delicious. We leave content, licking our chocolaty lips!

- Marisa Laycock moved from South West London to St Albans in 2000. She enjoys sharing her experiences of living in St Albans