18th December - Hut 82

Yet another stormy night with high winds and pouring rain for the 18th hut of the Advent Calendar.  





God is either reinforcing our decision to make this the last year of this event or is unhappy that we've announced that we're not doing it any more!

We had a distinctly modern take on our Follow the Star theme tonight as Kate and her family created a border check point where the wise men had been stopped as they followed the star from the East.




The second chapter of Matthew tells us about the political situation in Jerusalem when the wise men arrived to ask King Herod where they would find the newborn king signified by the star.







Our modern day wise men travelled in a minivan, instead of on camels, and had star charts and astronomical information to help guide them on their way.





But they were stopped at the check point with some force as border guards shot at their vehicle and erected a stop barrier and barbed wire to block their way.




The hut itself was stark and bare, turned into a guard house complete with check in desk and military insignia.




It even felt as though the weather was helping to reinforce the overall atmosphere of deprivation and difficulty which must have been the experience of all those who were involved in the nativity story.



Tomorrow night we move West to hut 341.

17th December - Hut 225

After quite a few days of terrible weather, we finally had a dry and relatively calm evening for the 17th hut of the Beach Hut Advent Calendar.

St. Andrew's school in Hove created the installation in hut 225 with stars in a red and silver colour scheme.





The display also included a few characters from the nativity story - the first time these have appeared in the advent calendar this year.



We had a manger with the baby Jesus and beside him was a small calf, representative of all the animals that could have been in the stable.  This calf had starred in the school nativity play and was called Simon Cow-ell!



Above this pastoral scene, swinging around in the wind, was a collection of beautiful three dimensional stars intertwined with strings of Christmas lights.








On the floor of the hut were more stars, twinkling with more lights. This reminded me of the Oscar Wilde quote - "we are all of us lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars".

There's something about the down to earth nature of the stable birth and the glorious celebrations of the angels of the nativity that fits with this quote.

Tomorrow we move back to Hove Lawns to hut 82.

16th December - Hut 215

The bad weather continues to convince us that this is the year to stop running the Beach Hut Advent Calendar as this evening we were subjected yet again to strong winds and heavy rain.





Despite this, Longhill High School created a forest of stars in the top half of their hut behind a silhouette of the camel caravan train of the wise men, following the hero star that hung directly above them.



Below this scene was a series of layers which had lighting between them, creating a kind of seawave effect.

We're looking forward to some better weather tomorrow very close to the hut location today at hut 225.

15th December - Hut 424

Tonight we were heavily affected by storm Deirdre which made it impossible to open the hut due to the high winds and heavy rain on the seafront.





Instead we took Kirsty Tyler's wonderful animation and projected it through the windscreen of one of our cars onto the front of a hut near to one of the seafront shelters.




The film was produced using models created for previous huts in the Beach Hut Advent Calendar and tells the whole Christmas story using charming cardboard characters and scenery.








The animation is posted in full below and was shown at  the St. Luke's Prestonville carol service on Sunday night and will be used extensively over the Christmas period..

14th December - Hut 332

The stars of hut 332 on the 14th night of our final Advent Calendar, were the Dawn Chorus, a community choir who came and sang a selection of Christmas sings beautifully on the seafront tonight.




The Dawn Chorus is led by the ever energetic Julie Nye who came tonight dressed in a kind of Christmas/Santa Onesey which helped give her conducting of the choir a pizazz that isn't normally seen at weekly rehearsals!







The choir meets on Friday mornings at St. Luke's Prestonville in Brighton and on Thursday mornings at the West Street Loft in Shoreham.  It's open to anyone who wants to come along whether you're confident, tentative or a non-singer but are just interested in and informal, friendly, fun singing group.


It's just as well that the choir was the star tonight as due to rust and cold we were unable to get the locks of the hut open and so had to improvise a star decoration on the outside of hut 332.





Improvisation is not a bad theme to be reminded of at Advent as Joseph and Mary had to improvise a lots when they found themselves in a strange town about to give birth.

Finding a stable for shelter and a cattle trough as a bed for the baby all show some ingenuity on their part, perhaps a reflection of the creative genius of God.

Tomorrow we're at Hut 424 when one of the Beyond team will be creating the art.

13th December - Hut 94

Advent is a season of waiting and expectation which is why Advent Calendars were invented in the first place - as a way of marking that waiting and enhancing the countdown to Christmas Day.







Hut 94 posed an Advent question for us - what are we waiting for?  This was marked out as a giant question mark made up of tea lights that sat in front of the hut which only had the doors open a crack, giving a hint of what was beyond.





People who came along were invited to take a sparkly star and write a prayer or question of their own on it before placing it underneath one of the tea lights so that they glittered in the candle light.  

These prayers will be taken back to Chichester Cathedral and added to a prayer installation there.

 The next hut is 332 and back in the section between the King Alfred centre and Hove Lagoon and will feature the Dawn Chorus.

12th December - Hut 79a

Halfway through our final Beach Hut Advent Calendar and this was our first really cold night.  There was a constant, bitter wind blowing from the East all evening which brought a real Arctic chill to the seafront.

Tamara and her team from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Holmsted Manor battled against the wind to keep their stars relatively still by tethering them with nylon, rock weights and gaffer tape.

Three simple stars (Trinity?) were emblazoned with a single word each - GOD - IS - INTERESTED.

Many characters in the nativity story were interested in the birth of the Saviour of the World, so interested that they followed the star to find the baby in the stable.

The Angels travelled from heaven to deliver the good news, the Shepherds travelled to Bethlehem to see this wonderful thing and the Wise Men travelled from the East to find the newborn king.

All of this pilgrimage is caused because God shows such interest in us by coming to Earth and bringing light into the darkness.

Part of the Christian message throughout the Advent season and at Christmas is that we affirm that God is.

 The next hut is number 94 which is also beside Hove Lawns.

11th December - Hut 253

Hut 253 presented us with a whole scene of star followers and the hint of a nativity for the first time this year.

Annelies Clarke was the artist who created this wonderful image.






The foreground consisted of three shadowy figures heading away from us, towards Bethlehem which was very small in the distance at the bottom of the hut.  



If you looked closely you could see a tiny silhouette of the stage which would be their final destination.

Above this stable was a beautiful golden star with rays of light beaming out to all corners of the sky which was strewn with a constellation of stars which dripped across the blue backdrop which was itself made up of stars.




Hidden in the distance behind the stars was a silvery choir of heavenly angels, just visible through the sparkling firmament as they made their way towards the holy scene taking place in Bethlehem.













Added to all this beauty in the hut was a fantastic choir who sang in perfect harmony for almost the whole hour of the hut opening.

Tomorrow we head East to hut 79a beside Hove Lawns.

10th December - Hut 262

You may have heard that necessity is the mother of invention and that was the background to hut 262 tonight.  







Sadly the owner and artist was delayed coming back to the  UK from a trip abroad and so was mid-air this afternoon and unable to come and create an art installation or even to open the hut.






So emergency artistic juices got to work and we were able to create an installation projected onto the front of the hut thanks to a little time and the wonders of modern technology.






We had a small, self-powered projector running a star-shaped animation of the journey to Bethlehem and all those who followed the star to find the baby born in the manger.





This turned the whole front of the beach hut into a mini seafront cinema as we watched the animation and listened to a beautiful version of 'Silent Night'.

It was a mesmerising show and all those who came along tonight watched it a number of times in quiet contemplation. 




The animation was originally created by Jon Birch and distributed through Proost and was adapted for tonight, placing the animation within a star and adding and end tag saying "Follow the Star".

The full video is below.

Tomorrow we're at hut 253 with a professional artist and a full choir.