The town’s “Tales of Old” Christmas celebrations on Saturday December 10 are gathering speed with a full day of attractions ahead.
There’s still just time to enter the Christmas tree competition but entrants need to register with caroline@christmasinrye.co.uk and deliver their decorated tree (no more than 3ft high) to the Baptist Church in Cinque Ports Street on Friday December 9,  between 3pm and 5pm for the chance to win.
Earlier in the week a monster tree, far more than three feet high, arrived at Strand Quay and was welcomed on Facebook with comments such as “lovely, fantastic, excellent, so proud of Rye” and, at the same time, the Christmas lights (pictured above) were giving the High Street and the rest of the town an atmospheric look and feel.
And Saturday, December 10, will be a really full day, so Rye News has split up the offerings among our pages with some highlights listed below, and a fairly full list on our LIVING page.
Our CULTURE page picks up on the main events on the three stages;Â SPORT highlights the races, while the NEWS page picks up on anything else we have overlooked.
Printed programmes were available in shops and other premises around the town earlier in the week (but were going fast) and lots of detail is on the festival website. Also on sale  are festival mugs (£6 for one, two for £10) to raise funds for next year’s event.
Last week’s story provided many details and also whetted your appetite with a short film of last year’s event which you can see on our front page (top right).
Father Christmas arrives at the Town Hall at 10am, and the Christmas Market is open in Strand Quay from 11am until 5pm. Acts at the two main stages in the Cinque Ports Inn car park and the Butter Market under the Town Hall kick off at 11am, and the big procession starts from the railway station at 4:30pm.
And of course, other events are happening before and after Saturday’s “Tales of Old”. On Thursday, December 8, the Jazz Festival starred Rick Wakeman in St Mary’s followed by Mica Paris and on Friday December 9, the London Community Gospel Choir will be raising the rafters. And Atlantic are at the Ypres Castle Inn on Friday December 9 from 9:30pm, with Julie Edmunds at the Kings Head on Rye Hill singing for Christmas on Sunday, December 11, from 5pm.
The Grapevine in Conduit Hill will also be jazzing it up on Friday and Saturday night, so it will be a long weekend for all – and the Wall of Sound, Mother Christmas and the reindeer have not even got a mention yet. But you will find them in this edition of Rye News if you follow the links above to stories in each of our sections.
Photo: John Minter
Image Credits: John Minter .