We had a great Christmas here on the development. The Saturday before Christmas, the we worked alongside the Residents Association and put on an outdoor carol sing-a-long, with the help of a local Salvation Army band. Despite the cold and intermittent rain, the sing-a-long was well attended and most seemed to enjoy it, warmed by some hot cider and chocolate.
The highlight for me was the second St. Crispin’s Christingle service. Last year the Residents Association used it as their Christmas event, but this year 
they decided to do the outdoor sing-a-long instead. However, as it had been so successful in 2010, we teamed up with Forefront Church (the local baptist / NFI church who meet in the primary school) to put it on again. Local residents were still very keen to come and help make the Christingles, as they were last year!
The former hospital chapel, a delightful listed building, was kindly loaned to us by the Greek Orthodox church who owned it and we went ahead with a Christmas Eve Christingle service.
Every seat was taken. I think we welcomed about 200 people in and gave out all 100 Christingles (to children only). It was a beautiful atmosphere, especially when the lights were turned off and the church was lit solely by candlelight. I led the service, explained the meaning of the Christingles and the pastor of ForeFront Church gave the talk.
This was one of my highlights of the year. A great night and a great start to Christmas.
