AS Christmas approaches towns and cities mark the beginning of the festive season with the switching on of their sparkling seasonal street lights, the decorating of shop windows to reflect Christmas themes, the arrival of Santa in the selected stores and the welcome return of traditional pantomimes.
Entering the shops, customers are surrounded by the sounds of Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and other popular classics, while the arrival of the Victorian Christmas Fayre brings added excitement and an extra Dickensian twist to the city of Worcester.
Wreath making: Crafts at Christmas
In the some local villages, Christmas at first sight appears to be a more muted affair but from early December seasonal events begin to stir.
In fact December is a flurry of festive events for folk in the villages. Activities appear like an advent calendar, with each day a door opening to reveal a new treat.
As the countdown to Christmas continues many of the treats missed last year reappear on this year’s calendar.
The village churches will again be opening their doors for Christmas carol services and villagers will gather on village greens or lanes to sing carols.
Some individual houses illuminate their gardens with festive colours and flood the lanes with light
Some individual houses illuminate their gardens with festive colours and flood the lanes with light.
Further doors open to reveal sessions of creative Christmas crafts for adults and children to decorate their doors or trees in the weeks before Christmas and the traditional family Christingle Services commence again.
As we enter the week before Christmas we see there is often a visit from Father Christmas who may arrive not on a sleigh drawn by Rudolph and his reindeers, but on a trailer drawn by a tractor guided by a classic car containing Christmas elves.
There is often a visit from Father Christmas who may arrive not on a sleigh drawn by Rudolph and his reindeers, but on a trailer drawn by a tractor guided by a classic car containing Christmas elves
Opening other Advent calendar doors we discover the return of such seasonal events as the traditional morris dancers returning to dance in the country lanes and in one village at least Santa’s Sorting Office will again be springing into operation to deliver Christmas cards to the local community.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, services are held so that villagers have the opportunity to step into Christmas; Advent will end and Christmas will begin.
For the villages, festivities do not stop at Christmas, even continuing beyond the popular New Year celebrations into the early weeks of January when villagers celebrate Plough Monday, the traditional start of the agricultural calendar, and the festival of Wassailing, where, with toast in the trees and villagers beating pots and pans, the orchards will be noisily encouraged to restart the growing cycle in the hope of a prolific crop in the summer.
From the villages we wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy New Year.
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