Beach Hut 11

The carol tonight was The First Nowell (or is Noel? No-one seems entirely sure).  The carol begins by talking about the angels but then spends the next three verses describing the star and the important role it plays in guiding the wise men to the stable in Bethlehem.  So hut 11 was filled with all sorts of stars which danced and swayed in the strong wind which has returned to remind us that we're running this event outside in the middle of winter.








The hut had a lovely homely feel to it which was enhanced by the little collection of candles placed on the floor of the hut giving us a different perspective on light.  Amazingly, despite the very blustery weather, these all stayed alight for the whole hour giving the hut a feeling of warmth and cosiness.









It was appropriate that we should be focussing on light tonight as it's the winter solstice today and shortly after our event, hordes of people took part in the annual Burning of the Clocks parade to celebrate that the days will be getting longer from now on, not shorter.




Although it feels like an ancient tradition and seems to echo certain long held beliefs, Burning of the Clocks was actually invented in 1993 and is another Brighton tradition that is firmly set in people's hearts, minds and diaries, in the same way that we hope the Beach Hut Advent Calendar is.


The final three huts are all up at Hove Lagoon and the next one will be hut number 329.

Beach Hut 1a (brick)

O Come All Ye Faithful was the invitation to everyone who turned up at the brick built hut 1a tonight.

There has been some confusion about the brick built huts as they have a numbering system of their own which does not relate to the general sweep of the numbering of the wooden huts.  So hut 1a (brick) is nowhere near hut 1 or 2 but is actually somewhere around hut 195.  So given this confusion it was great that so many faithful followers of the Beach Hut Advent Calendar made it to the hut tonight.


One of the advantages of the brick built huts is that they have electricity and Janet, our artist for tonight, made full use of this by creating a video piece inspired by the work of Bill Viola.  The art involved a continuously looping video of a strange white robed figure walking away from us with arms outstretched, encouraging us to join in.







Leading up to the hut was a red carpet with the legend "O Come All Ye Faithful" embroidered on it.











There should be no confusion about how to find our next hut which is number 11, the furthest East of all the huts featured in this years calendar and right beside Hove Lawns.

Beach Hut 79a

'When a Child is Born' may not be a traditional Christmas carol but its' message of hope and light and the story of a child coming into the world is very appropriate for the season and is played a lot at this time of year.









The artist for this evening was Lucy and she took this theme and created an intensely personal installation in hut 79a featuring pictures of her own baby and her family arranged around a crib placed in the middle of a very minimal hut.





The doors of the hut flanking the cradle held lifesize sketches of the father and mother of the baby, looking down on the bed where the baby should be laying but which in fact held a message of peace for the world.





'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God'  was taken by some to be a message about the recent massacre in Paris.

Those who stepped into the hut were also treated to the sound of a baby laughing, making cooing noises and gurgling which made it feel as though there was a real infant presence in the hut somewhere.






Other sets of images included more quotations from the Bible including 'Truly I tell you, whoever does not received the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it' and 'Jesus said let the little children come to me... the kingdom of God belongs to them'.






Our next hut is the second of the brick huts to be featured in this year's Beach Hut Advent Calendar and is number 1a, close to The View.

Beach Hut 437

Hut 437 tonight transported us to a magical woodland world, all contained within the tiny space of a beach hut.

There was no mistaking the theme of the Holly and the Ivy as the hut was festooned and framed with long branches of ivy and berry filled sprigs of holly.

In the middle of the back wall of the hut was a huge wreath of foliage interwoven with a set of red Christmas lights.  Within this, as though looking through a window into another world, was a scene of distant winter wood, with a deer seemingly looking back at us, wondering about the crowds gathering around the hut.










But the best part of this evening was that, gorgeous as it was, this turned out to be simply the backdrop to a series of performances.  The hut owner, Korina, is a dancer and she teamed up with her friend Millie and the musician Alan Mars to create a magical show for us.  Contemporary dance mixed with harp music, singing and poetry to create a mesmerising event which was both inspiring, moving and uplifting.






They performed this three times during the hour that the hut was open and as well as being entranced by the beauty of the whole experience, we learnt a great deal about the connection of holly and ivy with the Christmas story and the Christian symbolism embedded in this.

For this precious hour it felt as though we had been transported to a place connected to nature and to God and that this hut offered us a window into another world.









The next hut features artist Lucy Lauener and is close to Hove Lawns at hut 79a.

Beach Hut 362

The carol at hut 362 was Joy to the World and the children who came from Aldrington school were determined to be joyful come rain or shine.  Unfortunately it was rain, and more rain, and wind, and more rain.... definitely the wettest night we've had so far this year, but this didn't dampen the spirits of those who came out.  Umbrellas were much in evidence as were wellington boots, waterproof jackets and hats.













The children were irrepressible and there was a real buzz of excited chatter as they gathered around the hut at 5.30 and began to sing.  We had a medley of a number of different carols and of course Joy to the World was in amongst all the others.  Parents were also on hand to help protect their offspring from the elements and Laura, who organised the whole thing, rewarded every child with a chocolate lolly.  We think this might be the first time that a hut in this unique advent calendar dispensed chocolate, just like so many of the domestic advent calendars.


The installation included a large papier mache world with JOY firmly planted on the North Pole.  Above this was a golden crown, reflecting the second line of the song which is 'let earth receive her king'.

The whole inside of the hut was blacked out so that it felt as though the earth was floating in space and dotted around were golden angels, floating and flying in the starlit sky.

They were accompanied by glittering musical notes, a visual symbol of the song of praise the angels sang to welcome the Christ child to earth.


We're hoping for better weather tomorrow at hut 437 as we have been promised some dancing from hut owner Korina.

Beach Hut 19a (brick)

In the middle of the run of regular beach huts there is a short stretch of very different huts, very unlike the wooden shed style constructions that make up the majority of the Hove seafront.  These are the brick huts with metal doors that stretch either side of The View bar.  They are much more substantial than the normal huts, although they are about the same size inside, but they boast a level of amenities unheard of in a wooden hut.  The main advantage is that they have electricity and running water with a sink, pure luxury.





For the first six years this level of sophistication was unknown to the Beach Hut Advent Calendar but last year we had our first experience of a brick hut and this year we have two, hut 19a tonight and hut 1a on Sunday night.

Tonight the hut was taken over by Jane and her co-workers at MacMillan Cancer Support and the green of their banner perfectly matched the green decor of the hut.  The carol was Ding Dong Merrily on High and so there were bells hanging from the ceiling and a golden bell as the centrepiece on the table outside.








Attendees were invited to tie a ribbon on the tree of light perhaps in memory of someone who had died of cancer, perhaps as a reminder of those who might be struggling with this now.

A number of the recipients of help from the charity came to see the hut and were able to sit outside, wrapped warmly in blankets, to enjoy the mulled wine and mince pies and sing along with the carol.





Jane described the hut decoration as 'Christmas Kitsch' with the garish colours, bright decorations and even the odd icon and religious painting thrown in for good measure.

The weather stayed mild and dry and the wind was quite gentle tonight which helped the atmosphere of calm and peace.

So if you want to see another brick hut come along to nunber 1a on Sunday night.  The next hut on our calendar will be number 362, up towards Hove Lagoon.

Beach Hut 264

It definitely felt like we were In A Bleak Midwinter this evening as the rain poured down and the wind howled around Hut 264.  The worst weather was immediately before the official opening at 5.30pm when it rained really hard and actually between 5.30pm and 6.30pm the elements did calm down quite a bit and in particular the rain abated, but by then those of us already there were completely soaked.











The hut was decorated by the Brownies troop from the Good Shepherd church on Dyke road.  Each of the Brownies had made a cardboard angle which hung from a mobile in the middle of the hut.  Unfortunately the wind blew this around so much that they all got tangled up.






The bleak winter included a couple of cute white lambs in a snowy landscape and there was someone on hand to add artificial snow at periodic moments throughout the evening.


The whole installation was overlooked by a silhouette of the Holy Family in their stable.





The next hut is one of the luxurious, brick built huts which are not only more subtantial than the regular wooden shed-like huts but also had electricity.  Hut number 19a will not only feature Ding, dong, merrily on high but will also have a focus on the Macmillan charity.

Beach Hut 177

We think tonight was a first, we've certainly never had an event like this at the Beach Hut Advent Calendar before.  This was our very first live gig from a beach hut.








Hut 177 is owned by Sam Smith who manages a few bands and she arranged for one of her bands to come and sit in the hut and perform a short acoustic set.


The band were The Fiction Aisle, a Brighton band based near Seven Dials.  You can hear some of their music on their soundcloud page here.




This three-piece have a very animated lead singer which is why he is blurred in every photograph that we took!

We were also lucky enough to have a friend of the band who is a storyteller come and entertain us with a tale about a Christmas turkey.

















It was a beautiful peaceful night with hardly any wind and the soft sound of the three guitars and a vocals drifting out of the hut which was set up like a little stage with theatrical curtains pulled back to reveal the performers within.

Our next hut is number 264 which is just to the West of The View and is being created by a Brownie company from the church of the Good Shepherd on Dyke road.

Beach Hut 341

The Angel Gabriel visited hut 341 tonight.

Carrie Rawle regularly takes part in the beach hut advent calendar and has her own unique style which involves creating a 'stained glass window' using tissue paper and collage.  This creates a beautifully colourful image which is lit from behind and fills the whole hut.

Other visitors to the hut tonight included the Steiner community choir who sang some carols for the large number of people who came down.  

Tonight was very busy partly because the weather was once more nice a calm and fairly warm but also because we were featured this morning on the Sunday programme on Radio 4.  You can listen to the show here for the next 7 days if you live in the UK.

The next hut is number 177 and it will feature a live band performing an acoustic set.

Beach Hut 410

An unusual carol formed the focus for hut 410 this evening.

Brightest and Best is a beautiful poetic carol about the light that dawns on Christmas Day.  It was written in 1811 and is more usually sung in Epiphany rather than Advent.  (Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, Epiphany isa the season after Christmas).






Karen Morton created a vision in pink with glittering lights on a tree topped by a star of the morning.  The whole tree was enveloped in a chiffon pink canopy which swayed and danced very energetically in the strong blustery wind (yes, we've gone back to the same windy weather we've had every night so far apart from last night).

If you don't know the carol, here are the beautiful lyrics:

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning;

Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;

Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining;

Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;

Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,

Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all!

Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,

Odors of Edom and offerings divine?

Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,

Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,

Vainly with gifts would His favour secure;

Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Our next hut is half way between The View and Hove Lagoon as it's number 341