8th December - Hut 305

One of the nice things about Christmas is the revisiting of the story of Jesus birth.  It's a story that never tires and has been told and retold for thousands of years.


This recycling of the story of Jesus is an important part of the tradition of Christmas.  The artwork in the hut and arrayed across the seafront was made almost entirely of recycled materials.  




The main element was hundreds of bottle bricks - these are unrecyclable plastic bottles which are packed full of similar material which can't be recycled.  These can be used as building materials and have the added advantage that they stop a lot of plastic going to landfill.



The bottles filled the hut and were arranged in a labyrinth shape on the seafront.  This became the stage for some liturgical dance performed by some children as a choir sang.  



Everyone was invited to walk the spiral as a form of prayer and to think about their own relationship with the environment.  





In God's view no-one is rubbish or thrown away and we all have value in God's eyes.  Jesus coming to earth is the proof of that as he comes to show God's love to us all.

The next hut is close to tonight's as it is number 329.

7th December - Hut 177

HOW DO YOU GET 450 WISHES INTO A BEACH HUT?  

Ask The Outdoor Project to create a Christmas tree out of them and put them in hut 177 for the Beach Hut Advent Calendar.








The Outdoor Project run after school clubs and woodcraft school for children all over Brighton and Hove and involved all the children who come to their clubs in this project.





The children were all given discs of locally sourced hazel and asked to decorate them with a Christmas wish.  These were all strung together on paracord in a cascading design which created the shape of a Christmas tree which completely filled the hut.





Wishes included 'I wish that all the wishes in the world come true' and drawings of families, smiley faces and their favourite pets.








The floor of the hut was covered in a carpet of dried oak leaves which gave the hut a very natural feel.

The Outdoor Project works with over 20 schools and 450 different children contributed to this installation.



The weather earlier in the day did not bode well for tonight but the skies cleared early in the afternoon and this evening was clear and cold with a great view of the flashing lights on the Rampion wind farm which seems to have started up this month just for us.

The next hut is in the middle of Hove seafront at number 305.

6th December - Hut 227

The hut tonight was not only themed on the nativity but was also an hommage to the Austrian born artist Friedensrich Hundertwasser.  

The children of St. Bartholomews school in Brighton have been doing a project on his work and used his unique artistic style to create a nativity scene with a difference.




Hundertwasser was also an architect and an environmental campaigner and a strong opponent of straight lines, so his art consists of spirals and curves arranged in patterns of very strong colours.  His house in Vienna is famous as it is painted in this style and may have been an inspiration for the hut this evening.





The children had re-imagined the traditional nativity characters of Joseph, Mary and the baby in the manger, as Hundertwasser might have painted them.






These were beautifully rendered in bold patterns and colours which stood out in the darkness.




Even the star that hung above the stable scene was painted with spirals and patterns as well as being surrounded with lights.

Our next hut will also feature artwork by children and is number 177.

5th December - Hut 94

Tonight we were asked to reflect on the Word Made Flesh, one of the phrases used to describe Jesus in the Gospel of John.







The hut was dressed in red satin drapes and ribbons representing the womb and reminding us of the human reality of God become man in Jesus.  





Each of the thirty ribbons that hung in the hut had 'the word made flesh' written on them in a different language, for this is a message for all.







One person who came to the hut immediately saw these words in her own native language and was touched at how this made her feel that she belonged.




Alongside this beautiful visual we were treated to an occasional reading of a poem by Malcolm Guite called O Emmanuel.





O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

LouLou Morris was the artist on behalf of Chichester Cathedral in collaboration with Marguerite Saffery using the hut belonging to Anthony Bradley.

Our next hut is number 227 beside The View on Hove seafront.

4th December - Hut 225

Tonight hut 225 contained the nativity in black and white.  The hut was filled with a simple silhouette of the well known Christmas scene featuring Mary and Joseph sat in the stable with the star shining brightly above them.








All the imagery was made from simple black paper cutouts, attached to a large white cloth and suspended between the doors of the hut.






The starkness of the black and white stood out in the darkness of the night but there was warmth and colour added to the evening  by a band of singers and musicians.  

This merry band kept up a constant chorus of carols and handed out carol sheets for everyone to join in.  They had special guest performances from some of the children and we also had a flautist and guitarist performing Christmas songs.



Our next hut is number 94 by Hove Lawns and will feature work by a team from Chichester Cathedral including a professional artist.

3rd December - Hut 402

Brighton District Mother's Union got to work to create a nativity scene with a difference in hut 402 tonight.  They used their knitting and sewing skills to great effect and produced 
THE KNITIVITY.







The floor of the hut had a full nativity scene with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, two shepherds and a sheep and three wise men.




Up above them on shelf that was standing in for a hill was a great flock of sheep and above them on the shelf of heaven was heavenly host of angels.  





They were being overseen by a big haloed angel who was clearly in charge of them all.






Floating high above all of this was a second tier of flying angels, dancing amongst the stars as they shone like stars themselves.




Everything was in the Mother's Union trademark colours of blue and white and was under the watchful eye of the Virgin Mary as she stood guard on the door of the hut.

The next hut is back towards the East as we head to number 225 close to The View.

2nd December - Hut 73

Hut 73 tonight brought some joy to the world in the form of a beautiful nativity silhouette on a background of hearts.

The art was created by children at All Saints church in Hove at various groups that are run there every week.

 The whole scene was lit by artificial candles which were arranged around a heart made from beach pebbles lying on the floor of the hut.

The colourful, warm light complemented the stillness of the evening as there was hardly any wind and the sky was largely clear with an enormous moon appearing from behind the clouds every now and then.

The silhouette featured two figures looking like Mary and Joseph but baby Jesus was barely visible in the manger.  During the season of Advent it's hard not to want to rush on to the birth of Jesus but of course that didn't happen until Christmas Day.

Both figures looked as though they were praying, perhaps for somewhere to stay as they went from inn to inn asking for a bed for the night, or perhaps from the impending birth of the Son of God, announced to them in such strange circumstances,

This aspect of the nativity seemed to be about the love which held the holy family together, no matter the circumstances.

The next hut will be up by Hove Lagoon at number 402.

1st December - Hut 403

This is the tenth time a hut has opened on Hove seafront to reveal an installation as part of the world's first Beach hut Advent Calendar.  Tonight was quite a contrast to that first opening as there were considerably more people in attendance although the weather was similarly cold and clear with a beautiful moon lighting up the night.




Our theme this year is aspects of the nativity and the King's school decided to focus on a verse from Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible which is often quoted at this time of year.

  
'The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on this living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.'  



Light is one of the main themes of Advent as we enter the darkest time of the year and the children of year 7 chose to focus on stars as their source of light.  





The hut was festooned with stars hanging from strings and lying on the floor and if you looked carefully you could see that each clay star had a name or a word carved into it.  



These were people who had been guiding stars to the children who had made them and we all got a chance to add a name of our own to a paper star in recognition of someone who had been a guiding star to us.




Some members of the school choir came down and led us in some carol singing alongside the mine pie eating and warm drink consumption that is an integral part of this occasion.   




In the centre of all of this was a stencil cut of Jesus, who is the guiding star for all who call themselves Christian.

This was a great start to our tenth event and we look forward to continuing this unique Brighton and Hove tradition tomorrow at hut 73 by Hove Lawns.