A Bermondsey Christmas

It's been a hectic day.

After the baptism of three church children at St James and a church lunch to follow with mountains of food, it was off to Christmas at the Blue, where there was Irish dancing, carol singing by Monnow Rd Baptist Church, a Santa on stilts, football with Millwall FC's community unit, ice skating, various stalls sealing Christmas goodies, a UK Homes for Heroes stall staffed by the Pearly King and Queen, Nigel of Bermondsey singing 'Bury my heart in Bermondsey', all presided over by Russell whose team had organised a brilliant community event.

Ice skating in front of the Bermondsey Lion

Irish dancing at the Blue

Next up was another great Bermondsey community event: the annual old people's party at the Salmon Youth Centre.

As is traditional, the event began with the Bermondsey Waiters Song (now in its 39th year), sung this year by the young people of Salmon Sunday who were to wait on us this year: Oh we are Bermondsey Waiters we are, We want to serve you like you was a star, Mince pies and rosie and plenty of cheer, Just because it is Christmas at this time of year.

All together now for the Bermondsey Waiters Song

Piles of food and gallons of tea were followed by the Entertainment which included a Cockney singalong led by Johnny (Daisy, daisy; Any old iron; Maybe its because I'm a Londoner), drama and dance by the Salmon youngsters, party dances led by the Resis revealing an unexpected gift for this kind of thing on the part of St James's curate, Jos.

Next we were treated to a Skelton-Molyneux duo singing the songs of Elvis, Paul McCartney, John Denver, and Cliff Richard, before Paul brought us a reading from the Bible and a brilliant talk about the real meaning of Christmas. That set the scene for a carol-singalong finale by Adrian, chair of trustees, and a scratch choir that included a certain local MP. A wonderful afternoon.

O come all ye faithful