1st December Beach Hut 395

Tonight was the launch of the sixth annual Beach Hut Advent Calendar and it really feels like we've come of age.  Hundreds of people turned up at Hove Lagoon to see the first of this years huts and to continue an annual tradition which has become an essential part of Christmas for many.

The theme this year is the Alphabet of Advent and we aim to work our way through the alphabet in order (omitting X and Z) until we arrive at Y for Yuletide which begins on Christmas Eve.  Tonight of course we started with A for Advent and hut 395 was set up like a giant advent calendar with four intriguing doors to open and peer into.

Inside, the back wall of the hut was completely covered with a giant mirror so that the viewers could see themselves looking through the hole behind the calendar door, and they discovered that they had become part of the nativity.  The inside of the advent calendar had a beautiful nativity scene and the holes where the doors were became the faces of Mary, Joseph, a cow and a cat depending on which door you looked through.

To some the true meaning of Christmas is hidden behind all the glitter and tinsel of consumer commerciality, but if you look hard enough you will always find the God who joins us in our human condition.

So many people turned up and wanted to see through the advent doors that a long queue formed outside the hut - the first time that has ever happened, but somehow very appropriate on Advent Sunday when we begin the season of waiting for that which is to come.

Tomorrow we're at hut 357a with the letter B.