1st Hawkwell joined with their GB district for a fun Christmas Crafternoon and Nativity. Team Leader Sally says, ‘It’s always so great to meet up with the other GB groups in our area and celebrate Christmas together.’ The group also took time to visit a local retirement housing facility to sing songs for residents and play games together.
1st Margate have been celebrating Christmas for some time now. A Christmas Fun Day was held, where nativity performances were created and performed. The group enjoyed Christmas parties together with 1st Margate Boys’ Brigade members. Younger members enjoyed a Christmas party with traditional games and Christmas jumpers as the dress code. The older members had a slightly different challenge, with their dress code being ‘something you’d find on a Christmas dinner table’! Entries included candles, a snow globe, a turkey, and even a coin! A great time was had by all celebrating together.
The 1st Margate marching band played at some local Christmas light switch-on events too. Their instruments were lit with beautiful lights and their playing was very impressive. It’s lovely to see how teamwork skills learned at GB pay off!
8th Portsmouth took part in the Love Baffins Christmas Market on Sat 2 December. They ran a prize-every-time gift bag tombola and offered free Christmas crafts to children so it was both a fundraising and a promotional activity.
1st Harlow held a Christmas Fayre and raised over £227! Well done!
1st Alford were wrapping up gifts and wrapping up GB members as they discussed the wise men who visited Jesus. What a fun way to learn about the Christmas story!
On Tuesday 5 December Suffolk District held their annual carol concert. Hosted by 3rd Ipswich, they were joined by the 5th and 13th Ipswich and members of local Boys Brigade companies, as well as family members. All groups brought an item to share and they heard the Christmas story through poems and a play, told from the point of view of the Christmas cards. The district were honored to be joined by Deputy Mayor Councillor Elango Elavalakan.
We know that GB leaders have many talents besides those they show at GB and Young Leader Libby from 35th Birmingham showed her talents off this Christmas! Libby regularly works as a mascot for children’s parties and events, but this Christmas she was asked to perform as the Grinch for a local Christmas lights switch-on event. Her performance was a hit and I’m sure her enthusiasm makes GB a fun place to be each week at 35th Birmingham!
1st Woodley Girls’ Brigade group held their annual Christmas evening for family and friends on 8 December. It was a great evening sharing some of the activities they have been doing and sharing the true Christmas message. The evening started with a welcome from the team leader followed by the youngest members in the n:vestigate group sharing the 12 days of Christmas, each day showed crafts that the girls had been doing to depict the different days. The n:gage group shared with the audience why we decorate our houses at Christmas which linked in very well with a talk given by their chaplain about what we put on the top of our Christmas tree – lots of angels and stars but she shared she had a baby depicting the baby Jesus on the top of hers. The whole group then performed the Christmas story with older members as narrators and younger members acting out the story and singing. There were some very enthusiastic shepherds and angels and lots of camels! The National Chairman shared that The Girls’ Brigade was 130 years old and that 1st Woodley had been meeting for 61 years. The evening finished with some singing and the girls decorating the cross with words like love, joy, and teacher. After the event, there were games, cakes, and refreshments in the church hall.
Last weekend 1st Newport Pagnell hosted a retreat for leaders in the Bedfordshire district to give them the opportunity to take time out for God. They spent the morning looking at Advent, enjoyed lunch together, and then spent the afternoon wreath making. The day was finished off with a time of worship together and some time reflecting with a prayer station.
4th Lincoln Girls’ Brigade held their annual festive fundraiser on 6 December. They raised £150 to go toward activities planned throughout the year from chocolate bingo. Five of the GB members won six of the festive chocolate prizes and none of them wanted to share them with leaders!
The evening was a great success and enjoyed by all who attended. The group also got together for a Christmas craft evening where they made peg angels, decorated wooden ornaments, made paper Christmas trees, and decorated stained glass window biscuits! This was all done with just a small, controlled amount of glitter as you can see in the last picture… It wouldn’t be a Christmas craft without glitter!