On Saturday, November 14, more than 50 arts and crafts vendors will set up inside the La Selva Beach Clubhouse and out on its lawn at 314 Estrella Avenue. The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. The county's visitor calendar lists it for that Saturday in 2026. Two of the three operations running that day belong to the library and its volunteers.
The Clubhouse belongs to the La Selva Beach Recreation District, which rents it out as an event space. The fair itself comes from two volunteer groups, the La Selva Beach Improvement Association and the Friends of the La Selva Beach Library. That split explains how the day is laid out.
The Building Is the District's, the Saturday Is the Volunteers'
The Recreation District's name doesn't appear on the event. The LSBIA page names the Improvement Association and the Friends as sponsors, and its contact address is [email protected]. That email address hints that the November fair has a sibling.
The sibling is Books & Brews, LSBIA's summer fair. The 2026 edition was Saturday, August 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Clubhouse lawn. It had 50 craft booths, a used-book sale, local beer, live music, food trucks, a bake sale and a raffle, and admission was free. The Friends ran the book sale, and the Friends and LSBIA sponsored it together. So in 2026, the Holiday Fair is the second of two fairs from the same groups. The Friends of Santa Cruz County Libraries' Books & Brews announcement shows how the pattern works.
Three Operations Inside One Fair
Three separate operations run inside the one fair, and two of them belong to the library.
| Part of the fair | Who runs it | Where | What the organizer page says about proceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50+ arts and crafts vendors | Individual makers | Inside the Clubhouse and on the outdoor lawn | Not specified |
| Used Book Sale | Friends of La Selva Beach Library | The courtyard | Not specified for this sale |
| Bake sale, drinks and Prize Raffle | La Selva Library's Advisory Council of Teens | The Clubhouse kitchen | Benefit the Library's teen programs |
The raffle is the part that's easy to overlook. Vendors donate the prizes, and teens from the library's Advisory Council take over the kitchen for the bake sale and drinks. The bake sale and raffle money goes to the library's teen programs. In other words, the makers selling in the main room are also supplying prizes for a library fundraiser in the next room.
The fair page doesn't say where the courtyard book sale's money goes. The Friends of the La Selva Beach Library describe their chapter as raising money and selling books to support library programs. They meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month in the Clubhouse Boardroom. The library calendar lists the next meeting on Tuesday, October 27, 18 days before the fair.
What's on the Tables
The vendor list on the LSBIA page reads like a gift list. It includes handcrafted jewelry, art, pottery, books, bags, olive oil and jams, candles, soaps, plants and home decor. Neither the organizer nor the county listing posts a full 2026 roster. Some vendors announce it themselves: Beth Truso's jewelry business lists the November 14 fair among its upcoming shows.
For food, the page names two trucks, Tacos el Jesse and S&B Burgers. It describes them as serving lunch, an early dinner or something to take home. The November page leaves out the local beer and live music that Books & Brews offered in August. The holiday version is a shopping day built around the vendors, the courtyard book sale and the teens' kitchen.
A Fair With a Long Record
This setup isn't new. A 2016 holiday shopping roundup from Santa Cruz Life listed a La Selva Beach fair on November 19 of that year. It had more than 30 craft vendors, family activities, live music, food, beer and a large book sale. By 2018, the Santa Cruz Sentinel was reporting more than 50 arts and crafts booths. It named LSBIA and Friends of La Selva Library as the sponsors.
So the vendor count went from 30-plus in 2016 to more than 50 by 2018, and it's still more than 50 in 2026. The 2018 and 2026 announcements name the same two sponsors. The earliest record found is from 2016, so the fair's actual first year is unknown.
The Weeks Around November 14
The Holiday Fair is the one holiday-season event this fall held inside La Selva Beach itself. The others are a short drive up the coast or inland. In date order:
- Saturday, October 31, 1 to 3 p.m. The Aptos Village Halloween Parade is at Aptos Village County Park, 100 Aptos Creek Road, behind New Leaf Market. It's free.
- Through Tuesday, November 17. An exhibit of Fran Majors's prints hangs at the La Selva Beach Branch. It's still up on fair day and comes down three days later.
- Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The La Selva Beach Holiday Fair, at the Clubhouse and lawn, 314 Estrella Avenue.
- Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5, noon to 9 p.m. The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation's 49th Holiday Fair. Sparky's Holiday Lights walk-through opens at 5:30 p.m. each day.
- Saturday, December 5, 1 to 4 p.m. The Aptos Village Green Holiday Market and Tree Lighting at 448 Granite Way, with local craft vendors, Santa, music and performances. It's free.
The order matters if you shop at more than one of these. The La Selva Beach fair comes 20 days before the Fairgrounds fair opens on December 4 and three weeks before the Aptos Village Green market on December 5. It's the earliest of the season's craft fairs within easy reach of Estrella Avenue.
The Fran Majors exhibit overlaps with the fair, so a fair visit can include a stop at the branch, the same library whose teen programs the kitchen and raffle are raising money for. The branch's regular fall schedule also includes tech help, Spanish conversation, preschool story time and Kids Crafternoon.
What the Listing Leaves Open
The organizer page has no parking instructions and no vendor map. It also doesn't say whether the book sale takes cards or cash only. For questions, the published contact is [email protected], the same address used for the August fair. The LSBIA page says "Saturday, November 14" without a year, and its footer still shows a 2022 copyright. The year comes from the county's 2026 event listing and from November 14 falling on a Saturday this year.
The vendors fill the Clubhouse and the lawn, the Friends sell books in the courtyard, and the Advisory Council of Teens runs the kitchen. The Holiday Fair runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, at 314 Estrella Avenue.
If you're heading to the Clubhouse on the 14th and want to talk about what makes La Selva Beach the place it is, from these fairs to the bluff, Melanie & Natalia would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a consultation, or just say hello near the book tables.
