Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council’s contractor has started installing the Christmas lights, including the Market Place candles, which have been a tradition for many years.

This year, there are also new lights, including a new tree outside the Guildhall. This conical plastic structure is an eye-catching addition to the town’s Christmas decorations, with a large windmill-like snowdrop at the top and snowdrops around the base.

We will have to wait until the Christmas Extravaganza on Saturday, 2nd December 2023, to see the new tree in all its glory.

At Preston Road Community Centre, we had three Christmas trees, one in the large hall, one in the hallway and one in the lounge. There were also foil ceiling decorations in three of the rooms.

Today was the time to take them all down and store them away. As I wound the long string of lights, I wondered about leaving instructions for unwinding. One wrong move and they can get into such a tangle.

The rooms have returned to a simpler state for the next eleven months.

At 10:30 pm on Christmas Eve, the bells rang to call people to the midnight service at St Helen’s Church in Abingdon. The choir processed at the start and led the singing. The rector, Revd Charles Miller, led the service, and he welcomed people from St Michael’s Church. Incense was also used, which is normal at  St Michael’s and less so at St  Helen’s.

During the second hymn, a candle flame was passed among people. The gospel reading was about Jesus coming as the light of the world. There was some lovely singing, thanks to the choir, and Revd Miller spoke about the real meaning of  Christmas and quoted a  Stephen Sondheim song with the lyric ‘Take me to a world where I can be alive’ and said that is what Jesus can do for us.

The church was packed earlier in the afternoon for the  Christingle service. It was fairly full at midnight, as the rest of the town was quiet, and many were asleep.

At St Helen’s, they call their  Christmas Tree a  Jesse Tree (The family tree of Jesus). Through advent, it is a way of journeying through the stories of Jesus’s ancestors.

The roof of the (Lady Chapel) has panels, painted about 1390, that also show the Tree of Jesse, where Prophets and Kings alternate, ending in Jesus Christ’s crucified.

Christmas and Easter are when candles are lit in each of the chandeliers in St Helens. There are hundreds to light and then extinguish.

Revd Miller was at the door afterwards to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you.

The Tithe Farm Estate is called the poet’s estate because town planners used the names of well-known English poets and an American poet.

Robert Bridges was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930.

Samuel Coleridge wrote poems including the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet, and his poems include Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline.

John  Masefield was Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967

Alfred Tennyson was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign.

William Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until 1850.

This year the Tithe Farm Estate and the adjoining Ladygrove Estate have a joint Advent Calendar window display.