16th December - Hut 253

One of the wettest, windiest, coldest nights so far was the one the BBC chose to come and do a report live from the beach hut for the BBC Southeast News.

Mel Freeman and Anna Prior worked on this hut and their theme for the letter P was Presents.  They enlisted the help of Year 4 at St. Andrew's school in Hove to create loads of presents in a variety of sizes, shapes and types of wrapping paper.  These covered the floor of the hut underneath two beautifully decorated Christmas trees.









St. Andrews also provided a choir who gamely sang a medley of Christmas songs, despite the cold and rain.

Mark Sanders from BBC news came down in the afternoon and interviewed us about the event which was fortunate as the weather in the afternoon was dry although very grey. 

By the time came for the live report at 6.45pm the rain was lashing down but Mark soldiered on and a few hardy souls remained to stand in the background and get their brief seconds of fame.  You can watch the report on the iPlayer here at 19 minutes.

The weather for the next hut is looking a bit better as we all head out to number 402 beside Hove Lagoon with a hut created by students at Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School themed around the letter Q.

One of the wettest, windiest, coldest nights so far was the one the BBC chose to come and do a report live from the beach hut for the BBC Southeast News.

15th December - Hut 79a

Tonight was a welcome return for former Beyond team members, Jon & Flo Pepper, doing a guest spot in hut 79a.  The letter was O and it stood for O Holy Night, one of the most beautiful carols.

The hut featured a curtain made from multiple images of the nativity.  Cut into these were a series of different coloured dots which seemed to form a pattern.  To those who had eyes to see these spelled out the words 'O HOLY NIGHT' repeated across the screen.

The whole thing was lit from behind with a strobe so that the words and images constantly flashed in and out.

The next hut is number 253 which belongs to Mel Freeman and will be featuring art from St. Andrews school in Hove.

14th December - Hut 11

Tonight we travelled the furthest East we could go on our Beach Hut Advent pilgrimage to find that we'd arrived in Nazareth, Jesus' home town and the place Mary and Joseph set off from to get to Bethlehem.

Amanda Ogilvie and Diane Cowan created a tiny little town in the corner of the hut which glowed with the good news that it was part of the Christmas story.

Made from a mixture of modelling clay and plastic pots, some of the little white houses even had gardens and a tiny well as a water feature to add to the scene.






On the back wall of the hut was a hand drawn map of Palestine showing the relationships between Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem which made you realise what a journey Mary and Joseph would have had, quite an undertaking for a young, pregnant woman.




The next hut is also close to Hove Lawns and is one of the most Easterly of the month as it is number 79a.

13th December - Hut 424

Kirsty Tyler is one of the Beyond team and always creates beautifully crafted huts and tonight was no exception.

The letter was M and it stood for The Messenger - the angel Gabriel who announced the news to Mary that she was to be the mother of God's son and who led the angel host announcing the birth to the shepherds and singing God's praises in celebration above the hills of Bethlehem.









The angel wings were crafted from rolled sheets of music symbolising the songs the choir of angels sang on that first Christmas night.






The song was accompanied by a great fanfare and Kirsty had created a giant cardboard trumpet which beamed the good news of the light of the world out of the hut.

So far we've been really lucky with the weather and it's mostly been calm and dry but on Friday the 13th our luck ran out and it seems the weather has now turned against us as we had rain and wind and the forecast for the next few days doesn't look too great.

The next hut is the furthest East that we go in our beach hut pilgrimage as it's number 11 beside Hove Lawns and the letter if N - could it stand for Nativity?  Let's wait and see.

Kirsty Tyler is one of the Beyond team and always creates beautifully crafted huts and tonight was no exception.  The letter was M and it stood for The Messenger - the angel Gabriel who announced the news to Mary that she was to be the mother of God's son and who led the angle host announcing the birth to the shepherds and singing God's praises in celebration above the hills of Bethlehem.

12th December - Hut 332

Local writer of The Sandies, Cathy Watts is one of our regular contributors and the theme of her hut tonight was L for Light so there were plenty of twinkly lights in her hut to draw our attention.

But we were also treated to the delights of The Dawn Chorus singing group, who meet at St. Luke's Prestonville and in which Cathy also sings.  They sang a range of songs about wassailing, rejoicing in Latin (Gaudeamus Hodie) and that we would all have peace from God.

At one point they all huddled together a little way away from the hut to rehearse and warm their vocal chords up although it looked a little like they were having a prayer meeting on the beach.

The light outside the hut was as beautiful as that inside as there was a slight mist in the air which gave everything a kind of halo.







The group will be performing next at the official opening of the redesigned Seven Dials roundabout which is on Wednesday 18th December at 7pm.

They will also be taking part in the carol service at St. Luke's Prestonville on Sunday 22nd December at 6.30pm.






You can read more about the group and their charismatic leader, Julie Nye here.

Our next hut is number 424 up by Hove Lagoon with a cardboard messenger courtesy of Kirsty Tyler.

11th December - Hut 44

The hut tonight was 'Knit for a King' with a collection of knitted items both real and symbolic decorating a party hut for the king of kings.

Simon Vincent was the artist who put this together using the hut belonging to Mandy and John Taylor.  

Skeins of wool festooned the roof of the hut while cutouts of sweaters with various designs and messages hung from them.

Each of these items of clothing referred to Jesus as the king of kings in some way.

There was even a little knitted version of Mary with the baby Jesus.

The next hut is between The View and Hove Lagoon and is number 332 and will feature local singing group The Dawn Chorus.

10th December - Hut 374

Tonight was a slightly different, but very special hut, from our usual ones.  The letter was J and for us that stood for Jan.  Janette Tozer was one of the first people to sign up to be an artist in the Beach Hut Advent Calendar, I still remember the first time we ever met in the front room of our house in Hove as we laid out the idea to a motley group of interested folk and Janette got the concept straight away.

Since that meeting in the middle of 2008, Janette has done a hut every year, even last year when it was howling a gale and she was not feeling very well.  A few weeks after she spent the that evening sat in the car sheltering from the rain she was diagnosed with cancer and she succumbed to this quite quickly and died in July of this year.

Her husband Robin, together with his brother, wanted to do a hut this year as a tribute to her and they created something very different to the kind of hut that Janette would have done herself.  This was a homage to her and the centrepiece was a lifesize image of Jan from her teenage years, posing on a heavenly backdrop in the way that Robin imagines her looking down on us in spirit.

Jan said that she discovered God through her art and many of her images were religious in nature, she especially loved painting images of Mary and we show some of her images here.

Our thoughts are with Robin as he learns to live his life without Jan and we remember Jan and her exploration of the divine through her art.

The next hut is number 44 featuring local artist Simon Vincent.

9th December - Hut 177

The Inn tonight was beautifully set up but was too full for anyone to be able to get in.
Fortunately there was plenty of room outside for us all to sit around on the straw bales with the added advantage of a real fire to help keep us warm.







The signs on the door said 'No Room At The Inn' and if you went up to the doors and listened you could hear a great crowd of people laughing and joking inside.

It gave us a little glimpse into what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph that first Christmas as they travelled around Bethlehem trying to find somewhere to stay.

We were treated tonight to home made mince pies courtesy of Gemma, one of the mums who has been coming along each night with her children who wanted to show her appreciation of all that we do with the calendar by using her talents to produce these tasty gifts.

The next hut is number 374 and is memory of Janette one of the first ever artists to get involved with the Beach Hut Calendar who died this year.

8th December - Hut 225

Tonight we were in Heaven, in all sorts of ways.  A Heavenly Hut, heavenly company, heavenly weather, it couldn't have been a more perfect night.

The White family turned their hut into a vision of heaven with myriads of angels made from toilet rolls and doilies, each one created by a family or made in memory of a loved one.  This was a special time to remember Felix White, much loved son of Matt and Colleen and brother of Grace and Elliott, now playing with the angels.

Each angel had its own personality and some had heartfelt dedications written on labels attached to them.


The whole scene was set on a gauzy backdrop lit by an enormous star of tinsel and Christmas lights.


The weather continued to be kind to us and so many people turned up that we ran out of refreshments about halfway through the hour, even though we had prepared a double amount.

Our next hut will feature the Inn and the Innkeeper as the letter for the day is I.  The number to come to is 177.