Our Christmas this year has turned into a proper season. With Wandering Tiger‘s fabulous Christmas show “Humbug!” hosted at St Nicholas Priory, the building has seen many excellent performances and drawn a huge crowd of fans. In the last couple of years, we successfully added concerts and talks to the winter programme. Excitingly, this Christmas (2023) Lightbear Lane have presented a fully-fletched Christmas season, with many visitors buying tickets for all the events of the season, and performances selling out quickly.
We started off with Rosemary Griggs’ “Lady Katherine’s Tudor Christmas” – a talk in costume with music and props that delighted the audience and got us all into the spirit. Local counter tenor Joe Levy followed with “An English History of Christmas“, taking the audience on a journey of traditional English Christmas themes and songs.
Our Tudor Christmas re-enactment, with 700 visitors over two short days, was so popular, we almost ran out of food at the bar! A special thank you needs to go to Dr Ed Fox for rallying his re-enactment outfit Commotion Times to rise to the challenge and make the house ready for Christmas, with demonstrations, food, crafts, dancing and music, a topsy-turvey dinner, and – of course – Sir Christmas.
BBC Folksinger of the Year Jim Causley joined us for a fun and frivolous Christmas concert with much jollity, mince pies and mulled cider. It was a pleasure to have him back and see many old as well as many new faces in the audience.
The moment we had packed away Marley’s ghost and Tiny Tim’s Christmas feast, we started to prepare for our first-ever New Year’s Eve concert. With the excellent flute trio “Flute Cake”, the building beautifully decorated to welcome in the new year, and audiences ellegantly dressed for the evening, the occassion was particularly memorable. What a treat to celebrate in such an amazing building, with top-notch musicians and an excited and joyous audience!
Last but not least, Alex Wilson performed not only one, but two Twelfth Night concerts. His recital was so popular that we added an extra performance. It’s a joy to perform to a full house, and learn more about Christmas traditions from all across Europe.
With so many events, there is a lot of tidying to do and then we’ll take a well-deserved break. Thank you everyone for contributing in so many ways to our Christmas season at St Nicholas Priory and I wish you all the best for 2024!
Until we meet again, stay safe and be in touch, Judith
