The Smarties, the Tunes and the boy who wasn't from Quality Street

St Anne's had its Christingle and Carols tonight with a nativity tableau (left) performed by the children and young people.

A really good turn out of St Anne's regulars and visitors from the parish made this an excellent start to our Christmas festivities.

We also got to hear the Christmas story retold by Paul with the aid of no less than 22 types of sweets and chocolates. I can't remember them all but I do remember that Jesus did not come from a Quality Street, that the wise men were Smarties, that the Shepherds heard the angels' Tunes, and that baby Jesus, he was a Poppet.

The previous day, Bermondsey Voices, our local community choir which practises in St James each week had its annual Christmas concert in the church (right), offering a wonderful mixture of carols, Christmas music sacred and secular, and three songs with a Bermondsey theme including one about Albert McKenzie, the 19 year old sailor from Bermondsey who won the VC in WW1 (soon to have a memorial locally), one about Ada Salter, and one about the 'Bermondsey Women's Uprising.'