If you ever get the feeling the Christmas season starts earlier every year, you might be right. In Smith?s Parish, Christmas is starting in October thanks to efforts of the Garden Club.

Tomorrow the club will present ?Christmas in October? a crafts and open house in Smith?s Parish.

Christmas in October is another long reaching consequence of Hurricane Fabian in September 2003. ?We are doing this because of Fabian,? said Garden Club president Sally Gibbons. ?Our normal House and Garden show was downsized.

The last house we showed was in May. We normally do it for four or five weeks, but many houses on our tour were damaged. Many lovely gardens were wrecked. Even though things got green again quickly, it wasn?t like people wanted to show them. If you had a garden featured in the past and a special tree, for example, is gone, or not back to itself, you are not going to want to show.?

Mrs. Gibbons said the Garden Club decided to hold the open house and sale in October rather than later in the year, because it is too busy in December; there are too many other events to compete with.

?We are moving Christmas up,? said Mrs. Gibbons. ?In fact, Garden Club members started making Christmas crafts for the sale in July.?

The crafts sale will be part of an open house at Orange Grove in Smith?s Parish. Orange Grove, courtesy of William and Joyce Zuill, and nearby Sandbox Cottage courtesy of Mary Dunning, will be open to the public on Saturday when there will be a crafts, plant and bake sale and also a raffle. On Sunday, tea will be served by the St. Mark?s Guild.

The crafts made by the Garden Club are mainly Bermudiana crafts, much of it made from natural materials collected from members? gardens including bay grape and palm leaves, and agapanthus (or star of Bethlehem).

The sale will offer Christmas stockings, wreaths, angels, Christmas tree skirts, gift tags, decorated pots and decoupage trays among other things.

?A lot of these are one of a kind items made by Garden Club members,? said Mrs. Gibbons who is a former art teacher. ?It is a group effort, which is always fun. The ideas for many of the crafts have been passed down through generations of Garden Club members. There isn?t skill involved. It is just fun. You have to be a little bit ?not all thumbs?.?

Mrs. Gibbons said in today?s busy world, crafts are just as popular as ever.

?People are always looking for new ideas for crafts,? she said. ?That is why we are using such natural materials. We are trying to come up with original ideas like the angels made from dried Agapanthus.

The angel idea was our education chairman Debbie Burville?s idea. We call them Debbie?s angels.?

The club is also offering another type of angel made from dried leaves. Each creation holds her own unique little bouquet of flowers or leaves.

Mrs. Gibbons said that although many of the items are made from natural products, they should last.

?If you keep them dry they should last a long time,? Mrs. Gibbons said. ?Bay grape leaves will last for years. Every now and again you might need to give them a light spray with some bright gold paint.?

The money raised from the Sunday tea will go to St. Mark?s Church. The money raised from the Saturday event will go to Garden Club scholarships.

Every year, the Garden Club awards a number of scholarships to students in horticulture related fields, such as golf course management, landscaping, nursery management and landscape design.

?We have handed out scholarships since the 1950s,? said Mrs. Gibbons. ?We do this because it is hard for anyone interested in studying horticulture to get the big scholarships. Last time we raised around $20,000. If we could do that again we would be over the moon.?

Entry for the house and gardens is $20 per person. There will be parking at Whitney Institute and free shuttles to the homes are available.