Christmas 2023

17th December 2023

We have completed our annual Christmas shoebox appeal and collected 42 shoe boxes full of festive treats to go abroad. This year the shoeboxes will all be going to Ukraine to bring a little festive cheer to children and adults affected by the conflict. 

The staff who teach the younger children have been busy preparing the nativity play and trying to teach the children the nativity songs. This year our play is Babushka and is all about a little old lady who is too busy cleaning her house to visit the baby Jesus. While she is cleaning, she helps several of the other visitors to the stable on their journey by sharing the few possessions she has to help them on their way. When she eventually goes to visit the baby, she is sad as she has nothing left to take with her, however the other visitors to the stable point out that her kindness to others is the best Christmas gift of all.

As normal we had a full diary planned for December, complete with the traditional children’s parties, including a visit from Father Christmas and Christmas lunch followed by the children’s talent show. We also organised our annual reverse advent calendar and collected up festive foods to take to church to add to the food bank. We ended our term in church for our traditional Christmas service – the perfect way to end the year and start the Christmas holidays!  This service is definitely my favourite of the year; full of happy faces, excitement and Christmas magic
This year the parish magazine asked the children to draw festive front covers for the December magazine and the winning design was printed on the magazine for all the village to see!