Christmas Carols and Mince Pies
How did it go and things to note for 2025!
A reminder of comments after the event
Annie
Well done for a lovely event. It was friendly, nice mince pies and tea, and brilliant to have the enthusiastic members of Green sefton present as well as using the ukulele band and our choir. A lovely celebration of local talent. I thought it was a great length too, and by the end we had pretty much run out of seats, so hopefully you are pleased about numbers.
Personally I liked the testimony of the speaker too - his story of being a tennis player and God helping him stop swearing was brilliant and powerful. It was interesting to be a listener to the rest of his talk which was quite a strong gospel message. An event VERY WORTHWHILE and so many great aspects, I hope you do it again and continue to work out how to grow and develop and continue to make the most of the event in future years too.
Andrea
I really enjoyed Carols and Mince-pies as well, good to see quite lot of people there. Well done Steve, Sara, Abi, the mince pies team and the other helpers. Good to hear that Natural Alternatives enjoyed it too. I also thought the lunchtime session worked well.
David
I thought it went well. Really well put together, good timing and the room was just right. Pity about the inquest but there it is. I thought it was a really good strong Christian message in the talk, (which in itself was the right length).
Sam
What a perfect day, perfect time, arrangements, and place. God’s presence was there.
We give Him the glory and praise.
Fiona
I have just visited the Chris Tynan and the gang from Natural Alternatives to thank them for coming and to buy more goodies !! they had a lovely time and really enjoyed the experience , and raised quite a bit of money for the mayors charity too, I thought it was a huge success and it was lovely having them all there . Personally I loved it all and thank you Steve as ever for pulling it together.
Ange
Five members of my team joined the celebrations. They said they really enjoyed it. The singing from the Bootle choir was very moving and uplifting. Great balance of content and very well pulled together. Some wonderful readers too! Lexio yesterday spoke of John the Baptist helped people get ready for the coming of Christ.
He talked about:
1) turning their focus back to God
2) Opening their hearts to each other
3) seeking wisdom to live Gods way.
All three were made available. The Natural alternative gang where a pleasure to be around.
Abi
I had a wonderful time yesterday in the presence of God and fellow believers. It was such a joy to see everyone coming together, filled with happiness, and being led into His presence. I especially appreciated Graham Webb’s inspiring message. Thank you to everyone who made it so special!
Julie
I wanted to say what an honour it was to be part of the Carol Service yesterday. God was definitely with us. To see friends from Natural Alternatives being a part of it enjoying themselves was truly uplifting. One of them told me that Jesus was an amazing person.
How wonderful. Love certainly did come down at Christmas. God bless everyone and may the blessings of Christmas remain with you all throughout 2025.
Cllr Karen Cavanagh
Just wanted to say thank you to all involved in arranging this. What an absolutely lovely, feel good event. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thinking ahead to Christmas 2025, here are some practical issues
Best date?
It’s worth getting a date in the calendar early. In 2023 & 2024 we selected dates to fit in with the Sefton Chief Exec. He came for part of the 2023 event (20th Dec), but other urgent matters cropped up and he didn’t make it in 2024 (5th Dec). I wouldn’t try to fit it around the Chief Exec’s diary in future – it is too restricting. Decide on the date and invite him! Week commencing 8th December seems like a good time – not too early, but before people’s diaires fill up. We invited the Sefton Mayor in 2024, but she had a hospital appointment that day. She did attend in 2023 and loved it. You need to ask the Mayor’s office about a month before the event.
What time of day?
With many people working from home there probably isn’t an ideal time, but lunchtime worked well in 2024. We got more people than for the 5pm start on 2023, although the later date may have put some people off. We started at 12.45, slightly later than originally planned to fit in with the choir who were involved in another event. 12.30 would seem a good time and a 45 minute programme worked well. We actually finished slightly before time. It is difficult for ONR colleagues to attend as so many work from home and when they are in the office they often have meetings.
Where?
The Assembly Hall seemed just the right size for our 2024 event. We used the Ballroom in 2023 because it was decorated for the looked after children’s party. However it is probably too big for the numbers we can reasonably expect. The only problem with the venue was a very sensitive inquest taking place in the Council chamber below us. Although the inquest took their lunch break while the event was on, the hubbub after was disturbing and the coroner asked us a couple of times to keep the noise down.
Format of programme?
Annie Spiers (In Another Place Christian theatre company, based in the Strand) helped us to think through our plans for this event, and encouraged us by linking us up with Jan Cullen who leads the Strand community choir. There is a separate spreadsheet with details of the carols and readings used in the 4 carol services before Covid (2016-19) and the two since Covid (2023-24).
The Crosby Strings ukulele band performed in 2023/4. They have been happy to do a mix of traditional carols and Christmas songs and are very flexible. Bernard Carolan leads them and is very responsive and accommodating. The Bootle Strand choir did two Christmas songs (not carols). The blend of carols and Christmas songs seemed to work well.
The blend of Bible readings with one Christmas poem also seemed to work. It is good to aim for a diverse mix of people taking part. We asked Emma Stewart (Diversity and Inclusion Officer) to do a reading - she said she would have loved to do it but was already committed. It was great to have the Bootle Strand choir including a number with additional needs.
Jan who led the choir said they thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the event. It was the one public performance they had in 2024. Natural Alternatives added greatly to the occasion offering wooden table decorations etc for a contribution to the Mayor’s Christmas charity. They are part of Green Sefton and the key contact is Chris Tynan. The choir, ukulele band and Natural Alternatives together brought an additional 30+ people and added to the joy of the occasion with their exuberance and festive dress.
Talk
We reinstated this after not having had a talk in 2023. Our speaker was Graham Webb, senior pastor of Jubilee church in Liverpool. Graham gave a very direct Gospel message, 10 mins long, telling of his own journey of becoming a Christian. There were no reports of anyone objecting to this direct presentation, or even saying it was not appropriate. Booklets explaining the Christmas story were available for people to take away afterwards including ‘Why Jesus’ by Nicky Gumbel.
Detailed matters
Publicity
Nathan (Grace’s fiancé) designed our posters and invitations these past 2 years. He wasn’t sure if he still had the software to do it when I asked him in 2024, so might be best to look out for someone else who can do this.
We ordered 500 A6 size leaflets from Vistaprint at a cost of just under £50. Slightly less if you order in good time and don’t have to pay the extra postage. (‘Premium’ paper weight, matte quality).
We distributed the cards amongst the group and this left approx. 250 which I handed out to everyone who was in Magdalen House (all floors) the week before . Not sure how many came as a result of this but it did seem useful to hand them out the Thursday before our event (which was also on a Thursday) on the basis that if people were in the office one Thursday, they may well be in the office the following one too! People appreciated the personal invitation. In fact the vast majority of those who attend are as a result of personal invitation.
We put up posters on the notice boards in each of our floors in Magdalen and elsewhere. We left a few invitation cards in each of the kitchens.
We advertised our event a few times on the intranet – the Comms team are very helpful. Sara advertised it on Yammer – we could probably have made more use of Yammer in the build-up.
Technical
The Assembly Hall has built-in amplification and there was one microphone. The ukulele band used this microphone. The Bootle Strand choir brought their own amp.
Sara asked a worship group leader (Tookie) from her church to bring her keyboard and this worked well.
The Town Hall provided a screen with projector and HDMI cable. Mark Patterson brought a laptop loaded with the presentation and pressed the buttons.
Suggestion for next time – ask In Another Place to co-ordinate the technical side of the whole event.
Refreshments
Sara co-ordinated the refreshments. Large flasks are available to borrow from the Town Hall. Many people from the group brought mince pies and shortbread.