This Saturday December 12 is Rye’s Dickensian Christmas including (wait for it) nine jazz musicians, eight creative crafts, seven cheerful elves, six mulled wine stops, five Christmas trees, four reindeer, three pantomimes, two storytellers, and a grotto bursting at the seams (more or less).
You get the picture, and below Peter Cosstick from the Heritage Centre writes about the Strand lights and its Christmas tree – just one example of many, many voluntary efforts going towards making December 12 a great success (weather permitting, and the Met Office was predicting that Saturday would have odd showers, but be mainly cloudy, after a wet Friday).
If you want to help on the day (and volunteers are always welcome) check out www.facebook.com/christmasinrye, or the main website christmasinrye.co.uk, or on the day you should find volunteers and marshals on their tea breaks at Carey’s on The Strand, or at the White Vine House in the High Street, or at St Mary’s Centre next door to the Kino cinema at the top of Lion Street.
There is a guide around [try Adams in the High Street if you can not find one anywhere else] which lists performances, Christmassy events, shopping, creative activities, festive fun and festive folk, and includes a map !
Most things start at 10am and theoretically finish around 6pm, but the pubs are still going strong. For example, the Queens Head in Landgate features local legend Louis Turpin from 8:30pm in concert and the Oak out at Rye Foreign from 8pm features the Wall of Sound choir, live music from “Ruby in the dust” and Chas & Dave style singalongs – and, of course, there is a grand finale carol service in St Mary’s in Lion Street at 6ish.
And there were around 100 entries for the poetry competition ; and the Baptist Church is featuring a Christmas Tree competition ; and there is a Christmas Market from 10am-6pm ; and . . . and . . and the list goes on. So let us focus briefly on just one small part of the celebrations.
You may have now noticed, writes Peter Cosstick, that Christmas in Rye is well on its way, and a lot of work has been completed to ensure the town looks the part, so when you are down by the Station, Cinque Ports Street, or Strand Quay do you ever ask who put the festive lighting up in these areas and who paid for it? Well here is some illumination on those mysteries of life.
Earlier this year Rye Town Council kindly agreed to meet the cost of lighting selected lamp posts and the station with various types of festive lighting. This was all completed on November 30. But since then the beautiful Christmas Tree at Strand Quay has arrived after a few years of absence (like the lamp post lighting) and was “lit” on December 7.
The tree has been generously supplied, installed and illuminated by Rod Chapman (Rye Wharf Ltd), Robin Payne (R & S Paine Electrical Contractors) and the Harbour Master. And even more – you may also notice new additional decorations in the form of festoon lighting along Strand Quay and in a tree by the Heritage Centre.
These were put up by the following lovely people who gave up their time last Monday – Paul Boorman, Stuart Pope, Charles Bronsdon, Peter Varley, Noel Varley, Martin Carter and Kevin Edgar. Thank you to A4 Architecture for powering the Station Lights.
So what happens when Christmas is over? For the past few years Eric Bourne of Bournes Removals has given the town free storage for the festive lighting and before you know it, it’s back to getting them out and putting them up again! Thank you to all at Bournes.
It has been an absolute pleasure to work with all the above, and I hope their efforts and generosity do not go unnoticed. I know this will only help the team that are working so hard to bring the spirit of Christmas back to Rye through Great Expectations. I wish every success to the big event on Saturday December 12 and hope the weather is kind.
A happy Christmas to you from all at Rye Heritage Centre
Photos: John Minter