BEACH HUT 225

Tonight was pretty windy on the seafront with the odd squall of rain blowing through which made keeping the details of the design in hut 225 quite a challenge.

The hut featured a whole collection of stable animals who were clustered around the manger.


Sheep and donkeys featured heavily beneath a sky filled with stars made by children from St. Andrew's school in Hove.













Despite the weather plenty of people still came out to see the hut and sample the mince pies and mulled wine.


It's looking like the weather is going to be a bit better tomorrow when we meet at hut 341.

BEACH HUT 424

Due to a slight administrative error we printed that tonight we would be at hut 364 when in fact it was 424.  Fortunately these huts are only 100 metres or so apart and everyone who wanted to see the hut tonight was able to follow the 'Star on a Stick' to the actual destination.

And it was worth the extra walk because the display in the hut tonight was absolutely beautiful.








Kirsty is one of the BEYOND team and she creates amazingly crafted and detailed artworks and tonight was no exception.

Taking the song The Angel Gabriel as inspiration Kirsty created the most gorgeous pair of angel wings entirely made out of feathers cut from sheets of packing foam.  Every feather was individually cut and crafted to for its specific place in the wings.

Because the foam is translucent the wings were lit from below and appeared to glow with their own heavenly light.

These wings spoke so eloquently of the changes that can happen when spirituality and creativity come together.  Simple, everyday materials can be transformed into something beautiful and holy.

The evening was amazingly calm and still given the winds and rain we've had over the last few days and there was an air of serenity and peace over everything tonight.








Lots of people turned up and throughout the evening ordinary people were transformed into angels as they stood in front of the wings and had their photograph taken with themselves as an angel.

The next hut is close to The View and is hut number 225.

BEACH HUT 194

Mary and Joseph visited beach hut 194 tonight, the first time this year that we've had anything that looks like a nativity scene.

A beach hut makes a natural nativity tableau as it looks so much like the traditional crib scene that we see recreated in so many Christmas cards, shop windows and church crib services.  Tonight the hut was full of straw which also gave the scene the authentic smell of a stable.









The hut came complete with a manger and a baby Jesus although of course Jesus' birth is still another twelve days away so this baby was a little premature.



The background to the nativity included an array of light up bunnies and squirrels, either alluding to  Easter or just making the scene look even cuter, although it was the children who stole the limelight as they handed out chocolates and invited their friends into the hut to become part of the action.








The next hut is the victim of a slight printing error on our part and is hut number 424, not 364 as is printed on the flyers.  There will be a sign at 364 pointing people toward the actual hut which is only 100 yards away and of course it will be marked with our marvellous 'Star on a Stick' which is raised above every hut so that the Beach Hut Advent Calendar pilgrims can follow the star to their destination hut each night.

BEACH HUT 332

It's still blowy on the seafront (although not as windy as the folks in the North of the country are enduring at the moment) and that gave a certain freshness to our Advent celebration tonight.

There were stars galore this evening as the theme for the night was the Star Carol by John Rutter. You can listen to a version of that here.










There were plenty of stars in Cathy's hut, including a starfish on top of the tiny Christmas tree and various star ornaments and patterns carefully placed around the hut.



The other stars were the amazing singers of the Dawn Chorus who turned up en masse to sing a number of beautiful acapella songs of the festive season.




The Dawn Chorus meets in St. Luke's church, Prestonville every Friday from 9.30am - 11am as well as in Shoreham on Thursdays and is a fantastic community singing group.  Their website is singwiththedawnchorus.co.uk






The next hut is number 194 and focusses on one of the most iconic Christmas carols in existence - Away in a Manger - this is probably the most well known carol ever which lends itself perfectly to the beach hut setting.

BEACH HUT 44

There was lots going on at hut 44 tonight with a distinctive Sussex theme to everything.

The carol was The Sussex Carol which is all about the good news that the angels brought of the birth of Jesus as redeemer and king.

Mandy was the artist who created this hut and she took the news theme to heart with a backdrop in the style of a red top newspaper entitled 'The Son'.  The main story of the day was the text of the Sussex carol.

On each of the doors of the hut was a crafty (in the sense of being a craft activity) interactive news feed made from small sheets of material on which people had written their good news stories from this past year.

Outside the hut was a news desk with blank sheets of cloth and people attending the hut were asked to write a few words about a good news story from their year and this was added to the news feed on the doors.

The hut was also visited by Cuckoo's Nest - the Brighton womens Morris dancing troupe who performed half a dozen dances as the wind whisked along Hove seafront, carrying the music from their accordion player down towards the two piers.

The next hut is back towards the lagoon and is number 332.

BEACH HUT 264

Tonight, hut 264 felt very much part of its environment as it was decorated with fishing nets and fish, perfectly appropriate for the stormy seashore.

The carol was a very obscure one entitled 'A Ship is coming Laden', which is a German Advent song, possibly one of the earliest known religious songs in that language as it was written in 1450.   It is a close cousin to I Saw Three Ships which was the theme of the hut last night and is an allegory of the Virgin Mary carrying the unborn child to its safe haven in Bethlehem.

Jesus grew up within a fishing community beside the waters of Lake Galilee and counted many fishermen amongst his friend and disciples and there is a long tradition of using seafaring stories as a metaphor for aspects of his life.

The main part of the decoration was a fishing net festooned with a variety of fish which completely filled the hut.  Scattered throughout the net was the number 153 which intrigued many of the visitors tonight.

153 was the number of fish that almost broke the net of the disciples when instructed by the resurrected Jesus to throw their nets on the other side of their boat.  It's also believed that in Jesus time the number of species of fish
known was 153.




So when telling this story, the writers wanted us to understand that this catch, directed by the risen Jesus, represented all the fish in the world, as Jesus comes to save all.

Our next hut is very much to the East of tonights as it is number 44 beside Hove Lawns.

BEACH HUT 196

Different types of ships came together in Hut 196 tonight, courtesy of hut owner Anna and paper artist Beth.

Three sailing ships were the centrepiece of the installation, beautifully crafted from single sheets of card with their sales billowing in the wind.

Beneath these, roaming across the golden sands were three ships of the desert, otherwise known as camels, the traditional transport of the wise men who followed the star to give the infant Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  

It was a pretty cold night but the chill was taken off by a fire burning in a brazier outside the hut.

Alongside all of this a choir sang four part harmony songs at various points throughout the evening.

The next hut is being created by the Church of the Good Shepherd on Dyke Road and is number 264.

BEACH HUT 253

Hut 253 was transformed into a mini-pub tonight called The Holly and The Ivy, an interesting mix of the old English carol and the tradition of the Innkeeper who had no room for the Holy family.

Above the hut was a pub sign, especially painted for this occasion, and there were all sorts of interesting and amusing little touches in the overall decor and design to interest the large crowd who came out on this beautiful, clear, moonlit night.

Just inside the door was the pub menu of Peace Pudding, Shepherd's Pie and Angel Delight, a menu Jesus' parents would have enjoyed more than he would as a newborn baby.

In the corner of the hut was a very realistic looking fireplace with tissue paper flames and red Christmas lights as the glowing embers.  The reason it looked for realistic is because it was a genuine cast iron fireplace, found by the hut owner on the street and appropriated by her for this installation.













On the back shelf of the pub was a row of wine bottles with labels saying 'Love', 'Joy' and 'Peace', bringing Christmas greetings to all the pub clients through a message of seasonal good cheer.

Outside the hut were tables and chairs for people to sit out and eat their mince pies or have a drink, although most preferred to stand and talk to their friends.

The next hut is number 196 which is just East of The View.

BEACH HUT 116

The bells were ringing at hut 116 tonight as we listened to Ding, Dong, Merrily on High.

Jim and Janice put a lot of work into the decoration of their hut including a custom made light up bell which hung above the hut on a specially fabricated rig.  The great advantage of this was that the bell was visible from all around, including behind the hut, making it easy for people approaching from the Kingsway to find us.

Inside the hut were more bells, including some handbells that the children really enjoyed playing with and in the centre of everything was a perpetually snowing Christmas tree!

It was a beautifully clear, cold, still night which gave us a wonderful opportunity to watch the full moon rise over Brighton and join the street lights and Christmas lights of Brighton and Hove.

For once the moon appeared so large that you can even see it in the photograph below.


The next hut is back on the Westward side of the King Alfred leisure centre at hut number 253

BEACH HUT 376

The carol chosen for tonight was Silent Night but the proceedings were far from silent as there were so many children running around hut number 376.

Deepdene school on New Church road in Hove decorated the hut with work by the children showing a variety of Christmas scenes and characters.

The school also brought their choir who sang a medley of carols and other Christmas songs for fifteen minutes immediately after the event began.

A good  number of family and friends crowded round the choir as they sang and almost swamped them as they tried to get close enough to hear.


The school also brought their choir who sang a medley of carols and other Christmas songs for fifteen minutes immediately after the event began.

All the artwork was beautifully lit by a variety of candles and Christmas lights.



This was the first completely clear night we've had on the seafront as there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we were treated to the sight of the light of an almost full moon hanging above the huts.

The next hut is number 116 beside Hove Lawns, much further to the East than we were tonight.