Festive
Events in HonitonWith
many specialist shops offering personal service, there’s no need to visit
larger towns to do your Christmas shopping. There will be late-night Christmas
shopping on 14 December and the market will be open so you can snap up a few stocking-filler
bargains. There will be lots of crafts on display and a band to jolly you along.
To
support local producers, a Farmers Market will be held on 16 December at St Paul’s
Church forecourt and will give you the chance to stock up on locally-produced
goodies for the Christmas dinner! You really will be able to taste the difference
as you savour a slice of Devon Christmas.
On Christmas Eve after all the
presents have been wrapped and the turkey been prepared you can relax with a glass
of mulled wine until you realise…you’ve forgotten to get Aunt Doris
a present! Thank goodness for the Last Minute Street Market where you can surely
choose from a selection of goodies on your doorstep, in the heart of Honiton.
Christmas
carols in HonitonChristmas in Honiton would never be the same without
the Royal British Legion Band and during the festive season they will be heard
around the town, on street corners and in shopping precincts, during the evenings
and at weekends.
On Sunday, December 12, at 7.30pm, the band will be at
the British Legion headquarters, in Dowell Street, to play for their own Christmas
concert, with carols and other festive music.
One of the district’s
finest choirs, the Sheldon Singers, will again provide the big musical attraction
in Honiton during the Christmas period. Formed in the Blackdown Hills, the choir
now has members from a wide area and is virtually based in Honiton. It was in
1999, on December 18, that the choir last performed Handel’s Messiah in St
Paul’s Church and now, after five years they are singing it again on the
very same date, December 18. Although many choirs perform abridged versions of
this very popular work, conductor Julie De’Ath Lancaster has chosen to give
a complete performance at Honiton, giving an opportunity to hear choruses and
arias rarely heard these days. This means that an early start time of 7pm. will
be necessary.
There will be a carefully chosen quartet of young soloists,
two of which sang in Exeter Cathedral choir and three of whom were Julie’s
singing pupils at the University of Exeter. Katherine Walker, now carving out
a career in London, will be the soprano, and unusually for local performances,
a counter tenor, Christopher Wardle, will be the choice, rather than the more
usual contralto. Tom Hobbs will be the tenor, and Nicholas Martyn the bass.
The
orchestra will be led by Julian White, from Torquay, and Julia Burrough will play
the harpsichord.
Tickets at £10 and £7 are available from the
New Street Veterinary Surgery and these will include the cost of a mince pie and
a festive drink.
A big attraction will be the Nativity Procession on
Wednesday, December 22. Accompanied by a donkey and a lamb, those taking part
will be in costume. The procession starts at the Roman Catholic Church at 6.30pm
and arrives at St Paul’s at approximately 7pm where all will join in the
singing of carols by candlelight.
St Paul’s is also the venue for
the United Team Service at 10.30am on St Stephen’s Day – better known
to most as Boxing Day. This will be followed by coffee and mince pies.
Another
event At St Paul’s, always worth going along to, is the Community College
Christmas Concert on December 20.
Those interested in the visual arts may
like to visit the pre-Christmas exhibition at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery. Entitled
Pulped, it consists of the work of artists who work with materials which have
been pulped at some stage in their life, or produce work which reflects, or has
its subject matter in the pulping process – reduction and regeneration. Interesting!!
The exhibition runs until December 21. |