At Christmas she saw a violin in a catalogue and knew she had to have one. She recalled her mother asking her if she wanted a real one or a fake one.

But by that time a cousin came for a holiday visit, a cousin who happened to play the fiddle.

So that year Santa gave her a fiddle, she said, and she has been playing ever since.

Competitions have become a routine for the 11-year-old Beamsville resident She will be touring all over Ontario competing in Fiddle Festivals, much like the one in St. Catharines last weekend.

Since November she has also been taking step dance classes in Oshawa and she competes in both fiddle and step dancing competitions at the festivals.

"I wanted to compete in more events," said Rachel, who came in second in her step dancing category Saturday.

Her mother, Yvonne Kulawic, said Rachel was inspired by Natalie McMaster, and on a family vacation to Nova Scotia, Rachel learned about step dancing.

"In the olden days it was to help keep time," the St. Mark Elementary School student said.

It's the percussion, her mom said, to go along with fiddling, and keeping the pace and hitting every beat is the hardest part.

Since first picking up the violin at age four, she has been fiddling for years, which she explains uses a different type of bowing and is played much faster.

Fiddle festivals, Rachel says, are not common to this area.

"This is huge to have this year," she said of the St. Paul Street festival.

Anne Deyme, owner of Ryson's music and the organizer of Saturday's event, said she wanted to bring what is going on in other cities to the St. Catharines downtown.

Judges Wallie Knash and Mike Mattie, two judges at the competition, said they saw a lot of talent.

"Particularly with the young people 19 and under," Knash, a senior who has been playing the fiddle since he was five, said.