Have you heard about the very special family event that happens on Christmas Eve in the villages? The 3 Churches Benefice hold ‘The Christmas Journey: The Nativity Story Reimagined’: a service for everyone, young and old, to become part of the nativity story!

Meeting at St Margarets Train Station at 3pm, we journey together like Mary and Joseph, stopping at inns along the way to see if there is any room. Finally, we travel to the stable (at St Andrew’s Church) to find baby Jesus has been born! With singing and readings at each stop, we follow the nativity story, and the kids get to be part of all the action.

Martha (age 6), who has attended every year since it started in 2021, said: ‘It is really fun and exciting. We knock on the doors and see if there is room, but there isn’t, so we have to keep going until we find the stable. Baby Jesus is there and there are lights. It looks really pretty. I love the singing and being with Rev’d Sarah.’

Every year we see the numbers who attend The Christmas Journey increase and there is quite a buzz in the local community in the lead up! This year, we had a fantastic 180 children and adults (not to mention dogs) gathering together at St Margarets Train Station to make the journey to meet baby Jesus in the manger.

As our numbers swell, we are even more conscious of the need for road safety.  As such, we had a greater number of helpers in hi-vis jackets marshalling everyone safely on our journey. Thank you so much to everyone who helped.

We visited inns along the way and, as always, love to see the engagement with the general public as we sing and share the nativity story. Special thanks to The Jolly Fisherman, The Oak and The Red Lion for taking part again this year. We were amazed to see our Innkeeper at The Red Lion dressed for the part – that was an extra treat!

We are really pleased that this special service continues to go from strength to strength and has become a Christmas tradition for local families. It will be on again this year, so make sure to wrap up warmly and join us!

The 3 Churches Benefice