Christmas ornaments, wreaths, bird feeders, candles … local do-it-yourselfers had a chance to make those things and more on Saturday and Sunday as the Placerita Canyon Nature Center Associates and Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation held their annual Holiday Craft Fair.

Story by Skylar Barti, KHTS

Photos by Leon Worden, SCVTV

For more than 30 years, the craft fair has given hundreds families the chance to create holiday wreaths, yule logs, bird houses and other handmade crafts.

Many of the crafts use natural materials that the docents of the Nature Center find and allow the patrons to use. For the wreaths, these park guides go to Christmas tree lots and collect the scraps to bring back for the event.

“The docents and volunteers will bring natural materials from home and wherever they can get it,” said Mari Carbajal, a docent with the nature center and the coordinator of the event. “People come, they buy a wreath base and that’s a donation. Anything we make is what we use to feed our animals.”

During normal hours the nature center is home to many different animals that have either been injured or abandoned at a young age, said Ranger Frank Hoffman.

The Holiday Craft Fair is the only annual event the center has that helps gather funds for the animals and the rest of the center, he added.

Those who attended had to purchase the base for the wreath before using the materials and decorations, which were provided for free.

Behind the wreath creation room was a section for children to build bird houses, make colored rocks, bird seed feeders and other crafts for free.

“They’re beautiful,” Carbajal said. “I’ve never seen an ugly one come out. I had a newspaper of professional wreaths. They (charged) $150 for them and they don’t even compare to what comes out of here”

Wreaths aren’t the only reason people come to the Nature Center for the craft fair.

For some, it is the one time of the year to meet with family and friends in a holiday tradition, Carbajal said.

One woman travels all the way from Arizona just to attend the event, Hoffman added.

“It’s a tradition to get together and build a wreath,” said Kelly Rollins, a Santa Clarita resident who was attending with her son and family. “It’s fabulous, because it’s free, it’s all natural from the environment, so it’s not like we’re going out and spending extra money. Then we use our imagination and construct it as a family.”

The craft fair was held both Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Placerita Canyon Nature Center offers a place for people to experience nature in a learning environment by showing off animals and native plant life.