Beach Hut 11

Joy sprang to life for the whole world on the seafront tonight next to Hove Lawns on day 11 of our advent calendar. 






A team of creatives from churches across the city combined under the banner of the Brighton & Hove City Mission and ENACT, a group based at Holland Road Baptist to create a tiny world in beach hut 19a.




The whole floor of the hut was turned into a winter landscape with crowds of tiny people who had come to worship the baby born in the stable at the back of the scene.





Above them was a sky of stars and the word JOY spelled out in lights on the front of the hut.






Flags were draped from the hut to a gazebo hung with lights and flags and suspended in the middle of this was a giant photographic globe, reminding us that God came down at Christmas for the whole world.


Tomorrow we stay beside Hove Lawns at hut number 44 which will include Cuckoo's Nest, the all female Morris dancing troupe.

Beach Hut 10

Angels were in abundance tonight as the theme carol was Hark the Herald Angels Sing and All Saints Hove dressed hut 73 with lots of angel wings as well as angels of various shapes and sizes.

The hut was topped off with a darkly glittering angel, watching over the proceedings like a true guardian should.







There was a pair of angel wings lying at the entrance to the hut and just below these a big tray of angel Christmas tree decorations, hand made by one of the team.







The next hut is also by Hove Lawns and is almost the most easterly of all our huts as it's number 19a

Beach hut 9

Tonight we were focussing on one of the core messages of advent - light.  

Advent is not only the season when we look forward to the birth of Christ at Christmas but also a time to celebrate the light as we plunge further into the darkness of winter.

St. Luke's church Prestonville created the installation this evening which was themed around the contemporary carol 'Like a Candle' which you can listen to here.

One of the church members, Mark Jago,  ran with the Olympic torch earlier this year and was kind enough to let us borrow this as the centrepiece for the hut as the Olympic flame reminds us of some of the qualities we attribute to Jesus as the light of the world.

Surrounding the torch we had a host of multicoloured lanterns made by the parent toddler Oasis group which meets in church on Thursday mornings.

The whole scene was illuminated with the lanterns, lasers and hanging decorations with little flickering candles in them, helping to reinforce the message of the carol that God is light. 

The next hut is right at the other end of the promenade near Hove Lawns as we move to number 73 to see what All Saints Hove has in store for us.

Beach Hut 8

Aldrington school and Beyond team member Kirsty Tyler did a fantastic job tonight turning hut 425 into a small beach front church.

For the last few weeks the after school art club run by Laura Thaxter has been creating coloured lanterns using tissue paper and jam jars.   

These sat at the foot of a beautiful 'stained glass' window created using the same technique - layers and layers of tissue paper and PVA built up to create a beautiful skin of colour.

Huge crowds turned up to hear the school choir sing a selection of Christmas songs and to marvel at the shrine of light and colour shining out into the darkness.

Next time we're at hut 395 with a similar theme being created by St. Luke's Prestonville who have also been making lanterns.

Beach Hut 7

Hut 195 was full of symbols from the theme carol tonight so that the hut almost told the story of the song.

The holly and the ivy were very evident at the crown of the hut with the rising of the sun featured in the midst of the foliage.  

But the main focus was the running of the deer across the front of the hut as pale silhouettes on a muslin frontage which was backlit with Christmas lights.

The muslin made the lights twinkle and sparkle as they all swayed in the wind so that the deer looked as though they were about to spring off into the distance.

The next hut is number 425 right down near Hove lagoon and the children from Aldrington school will be creating the installation and bringing their choir.

Beach Hut 6

The carol for tonight was Oh Holy Night and it looked as though we were in for some unholy weather as we headed down to set up the hut as the rain lashed down and the wind howled around us.

As our advent clock counted down to 5.30 miraculously the rain stopped and decided to stay away for the whole hour we were on the beach.  As people realised the weather wasn't going to be such a problem, they began to come out to see the art in hut 374.



Local artist Janette Tozer has been a faithful Beach Hut Advent Calendar participant and has done a hut at every year that we've run this.  She came out tonight even though she was quite unwell and had to sit in the car most of the evening.  We wish her well and hope she has a swift recovery.




The paintings were a mix of figurative, abstract and collage and all featured Mary in some form but always looking serene and peaceful.







We had a calm hour meeting the folk who came to see the art and watching lightning in a big storm flashing out to sea.

As we began to pack up at 6.30 the rain started up again and by the time we were driving home we were in the middle of a full fledged storm.  It made the peace and dry of past hour seem even more meaningful.

Our next hut is close to The View and is number 195

Beach Hut 5

Hut 399 tonight was all about gleams of glory amongst the grit and grime.  The installation was created by Josh Harrison and you can see more of his work and interests here.  

 The hut was themed around phrases from the carol Silent Night, particularly:

Glories stream from heaven afar
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face...

While the crowd enjoyed the visual feast there was audio of the carol playing with cows mooing away over the top of the carol - because a birth in a stable wasn't probably such a silent night after all... 

Real stable manure was mixed in with the straw to heighten the contrast that God should come to earth in such a humble way. 

Golden origami cubes were coming down from above, lit by the oversize bulb centrepiece and there was a trough of gold-wrapped sweets which was of enormous interest to children and adults alike.




Our next hut is number 374 and should prove to be a Holy Night.

Beach Hut 4

Hut 332 tonight was a vision of light on a cold dark evening.

Local writer Cathy Watts (author of the Sandies children's books) took the Star Carol by John Rutter as her inspiration, (you can listen to the carol here).

The hut had a large centrepiece star/snowflake and had a ceiling of stars looking down on the scene below.

Outside the hut was a collection of little Christmas characters with star shaped Christmas tree decorations which were given to everyone who came along and very tasty gingerbread people to eat along with our mince pies and mulled wine.

We spent a lot of this afternoon filming with George Clarke for a Christmas special edition of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces which will be broadcast on 18th December.

The next hut will be themed around Silent Night and is number 399.

Beach Hut 3

It was almost warm down on the seafront tonight as we trekked to the far west to hut 449 on the border between Hove and Portslade.  This particular hut was nowhere near any street lights and the dark really enhanced the light decorations in and out of the hut.

Susie Courtauld was the artist bringing together some of the traditions about light celebrated by a number of different religions at this time of year.  

Christ was at the centre of installation surrounded by love and light as well as symbols from other religions.

The theme for the night was Ding, Dong Merrily on High - the song sung by the angels in heaven sounding like the church bells ringing across the land at Christmas time today.  

To celebrate this Susie had made a beautiful angel from milk bottle tops - some of us wondered where you can get these nowadays!

There were fewer people out tonight compared with the huge crowds over the weekend, but this gave us a chance to talk to each other and there was certainly enough mulled wine and mince pies for everyone today.

The next hut is number 332 and will feature the Star Carol by John Rutter.

Beach Hut 2

Tonight was a beautiful, still, clear cold night which matched the theme carol for the evening which was See Amid the Winter Snow (although without the snow - maybe that'll come later in the month!).  

Alex and Mel's hut was a calm, serene vision in white, with patterned snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and lots of winter bits and pieces to remind us of what may be yet to come before we get to Christmas.

For the second night running we ran out of mulled wine and mince pies because so many people turned up, our apologies to all those who missed out.  It's great that the event has become so popular but at this rate we're going to have to start producing industrial quantities of everything to keep up with demand each night!

Halfway through the evening an impromptu choir started up, singing along to the recorded music that was playing in the background.

The simplicity of this hut was a lovely contrast to the exuberance of the first night, both of these showing qualities which are part of the Christmas story.  The story of the baby born in the simple stable with nothing and nowhere to live, and the exuberance of the choirs of angels celebrating the opportunity for peace on earth that this represents.

There was a real sense of peace on the seafront tonight.

The next hut is the furthest west that we go as it's right beside Hove Lagoon at hut number 449.