Hundreds of people enjoyed the Nativity Festival at St Columba’s Church in North Shields.

Members and friends worked hard to produce another spectacular display of Christmas trees, flowers, thoughts, and crafts.  The exhibition was themed on the Nativity story, and featured crib scenes of all shapes and sizes.  Some of the children had coloured in pictures of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, together with wise men, shepherds and angels, and had cut out candles from Christmas wrapping paper.  The Bible study group had cut out figures from printed text and placed them on an open Bible.  There were a couple of knitted Nativity scenes, and a tree made of Christmas cards.  The Brownies had made an entire cattle shed, with its own windows and smoke coming from the chimney – surely the cosiest Nativity of all!

The thanksgiving tree proved popular, with lots of visitors choosing to hang up silver stars and baubles made of cardboard on which to write the name of someone they wished to remember this Christmas.  Perhaps the most thought-provoking contribution came from the Ladies’ Guild, who had produced a table of memories of past Christmases, under the heading of “A Golden Thread”.  Through their lifetimes, they linked up Christmas past and present, and looked forward to the future with their grandchildren.  The ladies remembered the smell of Christmas cakes baking, memorable Christmas presents, singing carols, and dressing up for Nativity plays (including one with a real donkey!), and the script for this year’s production.

Refreshments and craft stalls in the church hall also proved very popular over the weekend of 14-15 December, coinciding with the town’s Victorian Christmas Market in Northumberland Square in front of the church.