5th December - Hut 305

The display in hut 305 this evening stretched far beyond the hut itself and almost filled the whole promenade.  Not only was the installation expansive but there was a lot to do and see throughout the evening.

The major part of the installation was a very simple spiral labyrinth outlined with evergreen branches and pots filled with sprigs of basil.  Everyone who came was invited to journey into the labyrinth and wind their way to the middle where they would find a young angel waiting to hand them a blessing.  These were written by elderly folk who had been asked what their wish for the world was.

The centre of the labyrinth also contained a simple Christmas tree prayer made from a pallet with the message 'Blessings of candle light and star light be with you'.

More pallets came into play beside the hut itself which asked what angels do in heaven when it is Christmas and reminded us to keep a place ready for them in our homes.

Yesterday we mentioned entertaining strangers unawares and this theme continued today as there was an opportunity to take a grab bag to give to a homeless person at some point.  This contained a hard warmer pack and a list of other items we could put in to make a homeless person Christmas better.

Inside the hut was a little row of very warm, inviting looking houses lined up under a beautiful image of a Christmas tree.

More pallet art reminded us of some key themes of the season - Joy, wisdom, love, hope, peace, believe.

On top of all of this we were treated to a series of dance performances by the young pupils of Hayley of Dancefit as well as the dulcet tones of a choir singing not only some Christmas carols but also their own version of Robbie Williams 'Angel' which was so prominent in hut 253 yesterday.

Our next hut is at the East end of the promenade and is number 73.

4th December - Hut 253

Hut 253 brought a modern twist to the angel theme that we've set for the Advent Calendar this year.  

The hut was turned into a disco for the evening with a constant playlist of angel themed pop songs, including Robbie Williams and Annie Lennox.

The club had it's own VIP area that was roped off from the hut itself which was set aside as a beach front dance floor.  Security was provided by staff from Angels Inc. including the Archangel Michael himself who was on duty all night.

Dancing wasn't the only activity for those inside the hut.  Looking down on the dance floor was an angel who had shed her feathers into a bowl that sat in front of her with some instructions.

These read: Take a feather and name your angel, hold them tight to think about your special angel.

During the evening people took paper angels and wrote names on them and added them to the crowd watching the beach hut dance floor.

This hut reminded us that we can be entertaining angels unawares, especially in the strangers that we meet as part of our daily lives.  

One of the joys of the Beach Hut Advent Calendar is the opportunity to meet new people, make new friends and discover the angelic qualities of those around us.

The next hut is 305, just a little further to the west than the angel disco of tonight.

3rd December - Hut 367

Hut 367 was inspired by the artist Cornelia Parker who takes ordinary objects and puts them into unusual installations, she's famous for blowing up a shed and suspending the fragments in mid-air.  

Crimson was the artist who worked with children at the Goldstone school to create angels from found objects such as leaves, orange slices and cinnamon sticks which were then suspended from a framework of branches spread in a lattice across the ceiling of the hut.

The whole scene was set against a white backdrop with silhouettes of snowflakes, stars and the Brighton Pavilion backlit so that they were projected into the scene.

There was an innovative addition to the hut in the form of a sound machine.  This consisted of a large box from which a series of white flexible tubes snaked, each tube terminating in a large golden ear trumpet.  

If you put the devices to your ear you could hear a number of different pieces of audio.

Some of the audio was children telling us about angels while others featured Crimson describing those people in her life who have been absolute angels when she needed them.  

These were all interspersed with recordings of the school orchestra rehearsing Christmas carols and the sound a baby heartbeat from within the womb - a sign of the wonder that eventually became Crimson's daughter.  This was there to remind us of the expectation of Advent as Mary waits for the birth of the baby promised to her by the Angel Gabriel.

Our next hut is number 253 between The View and Hove Lagoon.

2nd December - Hut 191

It was another beautiful still night for the second hut of the advent calendar as we gathered at hut 191 to look at the art created by the pupils of Deepdene school.

The Christmas lights around the hut formed a perfect frame for the artworks inside which were displayed like a gallery and covered every surface of the interior, even the ceiling.

The children had done lots of work on angels in classical art and had created their own versions using a variety of different techniques.

The hut was headed by a beautiful angel rendered in pastels, standing guard over the artworks inside.

Just inside the door was a collection of 'putti', this is the title used in art to describe a winged cherub head.  The children created their own version of these 'putti', each presented in the centre of a star, reminding us of the star that guided the wise men to the stable where Jesus was born.

The hut also contained a number of articulated puppets in various poses and brightly coloured costumes.

These were all versions of St. Michael, a soldier angel who is usually pictured with a sword.

Towards the floor of the hut was a row of beautiful little angel temples, each decorated with brightly coloured 'jewels' and fit for any angel to live in.

The Deepdene choir excelled themselves as they sang throughout the evening with a range of traditional carols as well as some really beautiful modern Christmas songs.

Our next hut is number 367 close to Hove Lagoon.

1st December - Hut 348

Tonight the Kings School helped us to launch the ninth annual Brighton Beach Hut Advent Calendar. Our theme this year is angels and we've asked each group creating a hut to interpret that in any way that they want.  Angels are integral to the Christmas story in a variety of ways and we hope to explore lots of different aspects of their roles in the birth of Jesus throughout this month.

It has been a beautiful day here in Brighton and as the hut was being prepared we were witness to a gorgeous sunset with amazingly clear skies and not a breath of wind.

This gave the hut an air of serene calm as a host of simply crafted cardboard angels hung around.

The art students of year 7 had made these as a school project and the budding artists had great fun searching for their particular angel amongst the crowd. 

Many of the angels had messages written on their wings.  Some were quotations from the Bible such as the words of God spoken to Moses in Exodus 23 
"I am sending an angel ahead of you. He will guard you along the way. He will bring you to the place I have prepared."

Others were thoughts from the students about angels including this from Libby: "Angels are often silent but they are listening to every thought that stirs our souls"

Each night we will be collecting an angel which will be added to the display on Christmas Eve when we're also inviting everyone who comes to dress as an angel.

The message on the angel given to us to keep tonight was, "I think angels represent guidance and when someone passes away angels come down, take you to heaven, and give you a new, fun life there."

We were also broadcast live on the internet by @surfgalsussex on a streaming platform called Periscope.  This proved very popular and had over 25,000 viewers during the broadcast and people are still watching it now.  



You can view her broadcast here and she promises to come to as many huts as possible and broadcast live from each of them.

This has been a great opening night and really captured something of the excitement mixed with peace that is an important part of our wait for the coming of God into the world on Christmas day.  The next hut is number 191 and will be created by Deepdene school. 

The Sixth and Final Holy Week Hut

There were very few followers who were prepared to follow Jesus all the way to the cross and there were very few of us at this last beach hut on Holy Saturday because the weather was so awful.  There is something very appropriate about focussing on death when the wind is howling around and the rain is lashing down and we had plenty of that on the seafront this day.

Helen Rawlings was the artist and we spent much of our time trying to protect her lithograph of soldiers and poppies from being damaged by the water whilst the poppy laden cross developed a beautiful shine from the water streaming down each flower.

We were reminded of Jesus words: 'greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends'.











A few hardy souls did make it down to see us and we huddled in the hut as we remembered Christ's death in the sharing of bread and wine.  It all felt very appropriate as we thought back to the feelings of those first followers as they tried to process the events of the Friday crucifixion without knowing that there was going to be a Sunday resurrection.

As I write this the Easter dawn is beginning to shine through the rain clouds and I am happy to say: 'Christ is risen, he is risen indeed'.

The Fifth Holy Week Hut

On this Good Friday it seemed appropriate for us to consider persecution and so the good folk of The Village church in Kemp Town put some thoughts together on this theme.  The day was clear and sunny but there was a bitterly cold wind blowing along the seafront which concentrated our minds and made sure everyone kept moving around to try and stay warm.










Mary and her team took the image of a hammer as their central motif because a hammer can be used to drive a nail home or to release it.  In the middle of the hut was a piece of timber bristling with nails and as one of the team read a story about humanities propensity to try and nail everything down, another nail was hammered into the wood.








We were also treated to the story of Paul Harfleet, an artist who plants pansies at the sites of incidents of homophobic abuse to highlight the persecution LBGTQ people are sometimes subjected to.  You can read about his work here.

Then we were all invited to come and release a nail and to collect a packet of seeds to plant wherever we like as a sign of our commitment to stand up to abuse and persecution.






Each night we have also had a simple sharing of bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus who was judged, burdened, faltered, loved, persecuted and eventually killed.

Tomorrow the final hut will focus on death as it falls on the day after Jesus has died and been laid in the tomb but before the day when he rises from the dead.

The Fourth Holy Week Hut

The theme on the fourth day of Holy Week was compassion but the weather was not very compassionate to us as it was rainy, cold and windy on the seafront for the first time this week.  Fortunately artist Lizzie Edwards was ensconced in the hut, out of the weather, along with her installation which was a modern take on Jesus compassionate act of service of the disciples at the last supper.








This fourth holy week hut is on the day we call Maundy Thursday when the church celebrates the instigation of the communion meal in the breaking of bread and sharing of wine, commemorating Jesus last meal with his friends before his journey to the cross.










The gospel of John tells us: Jesus got up from the supper table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.  

This act of service showed us how we should behave towards each other, putting the other first and showing our love and compassion by serving them.