Rotary at Christmas Part 2 - Big Tree Night

December 10. I have been thinking about my official title of Consort to the District Governor, and have come to the conclusion that it is a bit long, so I’ve been investigating ways to shorten it. I am therefore pleased to announce that I have discovered a suitable acronym, using the letters contained within Consort to the District Governor. I shall henceforth be known as the Codger, which is a much more snappy title, and one which undoubtedly my fellow Consorts in Britain and Ireland will want to adopt without delay. This will, of course mean that the Immediate Past Consort will, from now on, be called the Old Codger, and I’m sure my friend Helena will be happy with the simplified nomenclature.

                                                              Crowds gather under the Big Tree

This evening, with the DG busy elsewhere, I had a solo engagement at Shepperton’s Big Tree Night. It is an event that has been running for many years. From a relatively small-scale beginning, whereby people gathered under the big pine tree in Shepperton High Street to sing Christmas carols, the event has grown bigger and bigger over the years. Since the 1990’s community groups and local businesses have manned stalls providing festive cheer such as mulled wine and mince pies, shops have opened late, and entertainment has been provided. For a few years, when I served on the Shepperton Chamber of Commerce, I helped organise Big Tree Night. I can remember the time and effort spent by volunteers on things like the erection of Christmas trees and lights on shop premises along the High Street, the judging of the window display competition, arranging  a stage for the choirs and bands, even discussing which carols should be sung.

Carol Singing at Big Tree Night

In the last few years, Big Tree Night has become huge, the largest event on the calendar in the Borough of Spelthorne. Upwards of 6,000 people were expected this evening. The High Street was to be completely closed to traffic from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. Dozens of stalls would line the street, food was to be available from various marquees set up in the service road outside the Co Op, Father Christmas was to arrive on his sleigh (with real reindeers!), whilst local musicians were to entertain us from a huge stage alongside the Big Tree. As the Codger, I was looking forward to enhancing this glittering occasion with my presence. I was aware that the local MP was likely to be there and also the mayor of Spelthorne, and I was happy to share the stage with them.

                                                     

                                                              Reindeer in Shepperton for Big Tree Night

Before all that though, I had to help my Rotary Club, Shepperton Aurora, set up their stall outside the Post Office. Having collected our generator, banners and other bits of equipment from John’s garage, I got through tight security in the High Street to park alongside our allotted pitch, where Doreen had just arrived with our gazebo. This is such a marvellous shelter, which takes 2 minutes to erect, simply by being  pulled apart by two people. In contrast, the marquee we use at Shepperton fair each year takes 8 people to put up, and 40 minutes needs to be allowed for the operation.  Having unloaded the contents of my car, I went off to park it. My chosen spot was in the small car park behind what I call BUFKAB, (The building formerly known as Barclays) which amazingly, was empty when I arrived.

                                                         Jill, Ken, Doreen and Emma prepare our stall

Back at the gazebo, I proceeded to set up our lights and get the generator going. No electricity is provided for stallholders, so generators were very much the order of the day. My former boss at Runnymede Borough Council, Betty Greenwood, was in the pitch alongside us supporting CRUSE, the bereavement charity. CRUSE have set up alongside us for the previous couple of years, and I have always arranged for them to share our generator for their lighting. I had hoped that helping Betty in this way might be good for my career, but it didn’t work out that way as I parted company with Runnymede last September.  However, Betty is a lovely person, and I am more than happy to help her and the charity she supports, even though there is nothing in it for me.  Could there be a better example of the Rotary virtue of Service above Self? As a matter of fact, I think that Betty herself also embodies this virtue, in that she spends her evenings knitting little dolls of all shapes and sizes, and has sold over 300 of them this year for the benefit of CRUSE. The last few were for sale on the CRUSE stall this evening.

                                                       Our stall is ready for action

                            Spelthorne Mayor Suzy Webb (here speaking to Janet Matthews) visits our stall

Our plan this evening, was to engage the public at our stall with a game, which was a kind of static Treasure Hunt. Doreen Pipe had produced a large-scale map of Shepperton, and visitors to our stall were informed that Father Christmas had parked his sleigh somewhere in the village. People were invited, at a nominal cost of £1, to guess where the sleigh had been left, and their chosen spot was marked with a sticker. At the end of the evening the winner was announced. The prize for winning this competition was a real 6 ft Christmas tree delivered to their door, with a beautiful reindeer carved in wood. These super prizes were generously donated by Emma Pattinson, who has started a Christmas tree selling business in Shepperton this year. Our stall was littered with other small prizes and gifts provided by Doreen, who spends the whole year sourcing prizes at bargain prices that can be used here, or at Shepperton Fair in the summer. Thus, everyone who paid their £1 and entered the competition walked away with a prize. The entrants were mostly children, of course, but as the Codger I felt I should also participate, and was rewarded with three dangling Christmas pictures which I could attach to windows. I thought I would attach these to our front door at home and give the DG a nice surprise.

                                                        Proudly displayed - my prize

The ‘Where is Santa’s Sleigh?’ game proved to be very popular with the public, and there was a queue to have a go at our game for most of the evening. We used various strategies to attract people to our stall, including, in my case, a tin of Quality Street, but the most successful was probably deployed by Jenny Steptoe, in the form of her handsome son, who helped on the stall for an hour or so at the peak time. A University student, he was an immediate hit with the young women of Shepperton, who gathered around our stall like bees round a honeypot.

                                                              The Aurora stall proves to be very popular

The big attraction of the evening at Big Tree Night was the arrival of Father Christmas, due at 6.15, who would be on his sleigh, drawn by real reindeer. I wanted to get a photo of the procession up the High Street, particularly as our own Douglas Dick was helping Santa, but in the event it all happened so quickly that I turned my back at the wrong moment and missed it. Trying to outrun several hundred children to catch up with the sleigh as it progressed up the High Street was not easy, nor was it very becoming for a Codger, but I eventually caught up when the sleigh was parked outside the library.

                                                         I catch up with Santa and his elves

When I was off-duty at our stall, I took the chance to wander around the rest of the attractions, stopping for a while to chat to my Rotary colleagues from the  Shepperton and Sunbury club, who had a stall further up the road. They have acquired a number of new members in recent weeks, and I was able to meet a couple of them tonight. I had a brief chat with Ian Squire whilst listening to the entertainment on the Main stage, and then went to partake of some traditional Christmas Fayre (paella) at one of the food stalls.  

                                                       My supper being cooked

Big Tree Night is organised by the Shepperton and District Business Community, formerly the Shepperton Chamber of Commerce, under the indefatiguable Chairmanship of Jo Hornsby from Daisy Chain florists. The Master of ceremonies for the evening is the excellent Nick Wood-Dow, who has been doing this for as long as I can remember. Also on the organising committee are Rob King, Sarah-Jane Walters and Tim Want, who are all known to our Rotary Club. I was looking forward to sharing the stage and delivering the short (20 minute) speech I had been working on all week, about how Big Tree Night could be even more successful if the Consort to the District Governor (note full title used, for greater impact) were to play a more central role in future.  Unfortunately they seemed to be over-running, and so I did not get called up on stage. Never mind, it will keep for next year.