St John’s Christmas Celebration

St John’s Xmas Celebration, “Ring-a-Roses” Festive display

A touch of the Apres Ski at St John’s

YO HO HO AND A SPICY MULLED WINE,

MINCE TARTS AND A JOLLY GOOD TIME,

SWEET CHESTNUTS ON AN OPEN FIRE

TALES OF HISTORY AND A CHURCH CHOIR

CHRISTMAS CAROLS ON THE VILLAGE GREEN

WHAT A VERY VERY MERRY XMAS SCENE!!

The traders at St John’s came together on Friday night to create a celebration of Xmas with mulled wine and minced pies for all and an Elf spotting competition and presents for the kids.

We sauntered down at around 5.30pm and couldn’t believe the number of people outside Seasons café. It looked like an Apres Ski resort, with lots of people milling around with their cups of mulled wine and woolly hats. As any sensible person would, we headed straight to Seasons for our mulled wine served by a smiling Megan and then headed outside to join the throng on the pavement. Before we knew it Joanne from Fil’s Fitness Studio was handing us a mince pie. Joanne was definitely in the Xmas spirit as you can see from her T-shirt! She told us all about the organisation of the First Ever St John’s Village Xmas Celebration.

Joanne From Fil’s Fitness Studio enjoying the celebrations

All the shops taking part had an Xmas tree outside, the trees had been organised by Rachel at Ring-a-Roses and all the shops were open until 8pm. The Mince Pies had been supplied by Heaters the Bakers and the Co-op had supplied the Mulled Wine. Cest Si Bon was acting as Santa’s Grotto for the kids to get their prizes from the Elf spotting competition. However all the traders had contributed to the cost and were keen to create a fantastic evening for the people of St John’s.

Roasted chestnuts anyone?

Charles from the Surrey Woodburners, complete with Santa hat was busy roasting sweet chestnuts over his Kadai (Posh BBQ)  and next door was a little stall selling trinkets sponsored by the Ultimate Treatment Centre. We had a quick chat with Joanne and Charles over the Roast Chestnuts and then a chap in a Judo suit joined us. I thought perhaps he’d got his wires crossed and thought it was fancy dress but no, he was actually Fil from the Fil’s fitness studio and explained that as well as fitness classes Fil also teaches Martial Arts, hence the kit!

Baking Competition Prize

Not just Kitchen Ideas

“Not Just Kitchen Ideas” were  hosting the baking competition. Now I do like a bit of baking and when I saw the prizes I was kicking myself for not entering my new favourite recipe, Dorset Apple Cake. There only seemed to be 3 entries, not much competition I thought. However, I decided that there were bound to be more entries as the evening progressed and entered the competition for a bottle of Champers instead…had to console myself with something.  We had a little chat with Lisa in the shop who was very friendly and enthusiastic about the evening. She and her family had run the business for 21 years and this was the first time that they had done something like this.

Mike “Santa” Clark from St John’s Co-op

Re-joining the main crowd we spotted a chap outside the Co-op in a rather fetching Santa outfit. This was none other than Keith Clark manager of St John’s Co-op. A Co-op man through and through, Keith has been working for the Co-op for 25 years.  He proudly told us that the Co-op in St John’s has already raised £1,200 for the Carers Trust this year and it looked like they were about to raise some more with their stall of goodies all being sold in order to raise money for charity.

Just before the History walk, we ran into John Lennie  who was exhibiting his Wedding photo Gallery in Seasons. His pictures were absolutely stunning, he’d really captured people’s expressions while they were unaware and there was some lovely photography on display. I was wondering if I could get him to do the pictures for my blog?!!

John Lennie on the right, great picture Thunderbolt!

At 6pm we joined the  torch lit history talk around the village. This was a real treat and had at least 50 people enthralled for an hour walking round the village listening to tales of St John’s back in the old days, Indian princesses, establishments of ill repute, the origins of the Village Club and the history of the Memorial Hall and also the latest developments on the new hall currently under construction. It was an entertaining and informative hour, certainly got people talking to each other and was a definite highlight of the evening. If you want the full story see separate blog.

Finally the evening ended with a Carol Service led by St John’s Church. We had a little sing song until I embarrassed Colin with my off key rendition of Ding Dong Merrily on high…..too many Glawawawrias (Glorias).

I know that I have mentioned a lot of businesses in this  blog and they are only the ones I managed to have a chat with, however, I know that a lot of other businesses contributed and that’s why I have taken a picture of the flyer so that you can see exactly which businesses took part. The evening definitely achieved the aim of raising the profile of St John’s traders but not only that it was a great community event and from what I could see and hear really brought the community together.

St John’s Christmas Celebration Evening Flyer

At the end of the evening, 300 mince pies had been eaten, 30 bottles of mulled wine drunk and 300 prizes from Santa had been given out. We had a splendid evening, dare I say it, full of good cheer.  St John’s did us proud and those traders that took part should definitely congratulate themselves on a wonderful evening and the fulfilment of a great idea.

I’m going to give the evening a double thunderbolt rating – very good!! This was the first ever Christmas celebration at St John’s but I’m sure that next year’s will be even better not least because we will have the new Memorial Hall to celebrate in. Incidentally if you would like to help with the opening of the New Memorial Hall please contact bookings@stjohnsmha.co.uk and they would love to hear from you.

Double Thunderbolt Rating