Brilliant Christmas carols and concerts in Littlehampton

I started my week on a cold Wednesday morning to commemorate the handover of new allotments at the Kingley Gate development from developer Barratt Homes to Littlehampton Town Council. Following a ribbon cutting, representatives from Barratt Homes, new allotment holders and members of the town council were invited to share in a hot chocolate and mince pie.

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This is the first site in Littlehampton to have provided accessible plots, something I am extremely passionate about, so was very proud that, through working with Barratt Homes and a grant for accessible picnic tables and potting table from Tesco Bags of Help, we have been able to deliver this.

The next evening I was at St Mary’s Church for the Rotary club’s carol service. I was greeted by the sound of Littlehampton Concert Band, one of my favourite bands, so knew it was going to be an enjoyable evening. The evening started with a welcome from Rotary president Bruce Green and then it was time for us all to be joining in with traditional Christmas carols.

Dispersed between the carols were performances by children from Lyminster, St Catherine’s Catholic and White Meadows primary schools, and readings of the Christmas story by Rotarians. There was also a delightful solo performance of O’ Holy Night by Emily Williams whose amazingly beautiful and spiritual voice filled the church to the rafters.

Come Friday evening I was at St James Church for the Winter Wonderland concert on a glitz and glamour theme so lots of the audience arrived dressed to impress! With lots of well known Christmas songs to get everyone in the spirit it was a wonderful show, the choir also managed to squeeze in a few less familiar numbers including Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, and The Wonderful Christmas Pig.

Having attended a number of the choir’s concerts it was a delight to be asked to take part by reading the poem A Visit From St Nicholas which is actually one of my favourites. The night concluded with Feliz Navidad but not before everyone had to perform the 12 Days of Christmas, or should that be the 12 Days of Glitzmas?

It has become one of the choir’s traditions to rewrite the song and hand out song sheets to everyone, each with only two or three of the lines of the song so everyone joins in by standing and singing a section, and the church was filled with laughter.

On Saturday evening I was due to join the Arun Yacht Club for the annual Cadetmas prize giving and dinner, however in the afternoon I had to cancel as a cold I had been fighting all week had taken most of my voice. I would like to thank Ian Buckland, chairman of the council’s community resources committee, who quickly stepped in and attended on my behalf. Rob Elliott was presented with the Paul Hughes Cup for outstanding help and support to the training department, John Lowe was presented with the Dillon Cup for the cadet of the year and Archie Kelly was presented with Air Crew Trophy for the most improved cadet.

Having rested up on the sofa with duvet, copious amounts of tea and some cold and flu tablets, come Sunday evening I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent back to normal, but well enough to attend Littlehampton Baptist Church’s Carol Service.

The Rev Martin Seymour honoured those who have given so much to town over the past year. The service then turned to traditional carols and readings and children could go and make Christingles, while Martin encouraged everyone to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

With Christmas almost here the Mayor’s Moment will not appear in the paper for the next two weeks, I will continue to update Facebook with any events I attend and will update you in my first editorial of 2019.

For now, I would like to sincerely wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and happy new year.

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