Diary of a Consort: Christmas 2016

As surely everyone knows by now, it was the Christmas collections that prompted me to join Rotary in the first place. I can remember, as a child in Staines, when the Christmas float would come down our road, with Santa riding inside (this was in the days before Health & safety was invented) and carols playing. It was a magical time, which I looked forward to every year. Although I didn’t know at the time that it was organised by the local Rotary Club, I subsequently learnt that up and down the country, Rotary Clubs were organising similar activities.

Street Collection

40-odd years later, I found myself doing a talk to Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club about The Princes Trust, when I was asked if I would like to join Rotary. To be honest it took me a few weeks to think about it, but three things swayed me: firstly I was working locally again after 9 years commuting to London, so it seemed appropriate to get involved in a charitable organisation based in Shepperton; secondly it was (and still is) a breakfast meeting club, meaning that I could attend a meeting once a week without being late for work; and thirdly, they did the Christmas sleigh each year. The third reason was probably the decider for me, as I would now have a chance to be part of that magic at Christmas time.

It is a busy time for the Rotary Club, as during December we do 5 street collections, 1 static collection in the High Street, 2 days outside Tesco in Sunbury, and one evening touring the pubs and restaurants of Shepperton. Then there is Big Tree Night in Shepperton, now a very big occasion, arguably bigger than the Summer Fair. To complicate things even more, our mother club, Shepperton & Sunbury use our sleigh as well for a similar number of days.

Collecting outside Tesco store

Organising our Christmas activities is a very big job (I should know I did it in 2015), and this year we had a team of 2, namely Pauline and Doreen, known collectively as ‘Paureen’. The work really starts in January, when we try to agree collection dates at Tesco. This year it took a little longer, but by September both clubs had two collection dates in mid-December, thanks to the management at the store, who have proved to be very supportive in a number of ways. Also during September, all our other dates are fixed in conjunction with the other club.

Christmas in the High Street

At the end of November our sleigh comes out of its store, gets refurbished as necessary, and lives at John’s house until the end of December. John prepares the sleigh for every outing, making sure everything works and the generator is filled with fuel. He makes sure collection buckets are sealed and ready for use, and there are plenty of sweets for Santa (I mean for Santa to give out to children)

I had the privilege of accompanying Santa on our first outing at the beginning of December, when we toured the Studios Estate area of Shepperton. It is difficult to describe the excitement that is generated by Santa’s appearance in the neighbourhood. Children come running out into the street, parents want to take photos, even teenagers want selfies with Santa (a sign of the times). He had a good technique of knowing the name of every child he met, which adds to the magic, and whilst the Rotary members went from door to door with their collection buckets, Santa was only interested in meeting the kids, checking whether they are on his good list or naughty list, and establishing what they want for Christmas.

Christmas in the High Street - one year later

On these outings it is interesting to learn the current fashions in terms of toys wanted by children. This year seemed quite low-tech compared to others. Although there were the inevitable requests for i-phones and i-pads, which left parents rolling their eyes skywards, there were also a lot of requests for yo-yos, which seem popular this year, as are scooters and bikes. Father Christmas always finished by offering the kids (and sometimes their parents) one of his magic sweets, and telling them they need to be good in the run up to Christmas. Most kids accept this without question, but there was one exception. When Santa said to one young lad ‘Do you think you can be good for another 13 days?’ he responded ‘I thought it was 12 days.’ This had Santa checking the days on his fingers to see who was right. I actually think the boy was smarter than we gave him credit for. He knew he only had to be good until Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day.

Meeting the children

It wasn’t just the children who were excited to meet Santa. A lot of middle aged women also wanted a hug from Father Christmas, and he was happy to oblige. At one point he had 6 or 7 women posing for pictures with him, with each one wanting a photo on her own camera. It does hold up our progress when this sort of thing happens, but we are just happy that people are enjoying the tradition of Santa and his sleigh coming down the road. A lot of mums told me that they remember this happening when they were children, and wanted their own children to experience it.

Santa gets mobbed

On another evening Chris Arnot had the job of accompanying Santa, it was the first time he had done so, and the evening didn’t get off to a very good start. The first child Santa met went into paroxysms of terror at the sight of him and just wanted to run away. The second one, a little older, accused him of being a fake! Despite this inauspicious start, things got better as he progressed.

That evening Santa was in Charlton Village, where in recent years there has been a street party outside one particular house in Walnut Tree Road, which has an amazing array of lights outside the house. This year, to ensure the event was weather-proof, it was held in the Harrow pub, and Santa popped in there to meet all the kids. His helpers gratefully accepted a glass of mulled wine, but Santa had to refuse. He needed a clear head for all the kids he was to meet, and besides that, red stains down his beard wouldn’t look too good, would it?

Party time in Charlton Village

Going back to the decorated house in Charlton Village, we paused for our usual photograph outside. The owners, Derrick and Karen, are good supporters of the Rotary Club, and keep one of our collection buckets outside their house, so that people who stop to admire the decorations can nmake a small donation to charity whilst doing so. The bucket is then returned to the Rotary Club after Christmas, and the amount collected is handed over. This year they handed us a magnificent £150, representing donations into the bucket, and a further £50 raised at the party in the Harrow that night. I suspect that the bucket probably raised somewhat less than the figure stated, and that Derrick and Karen generously topped it up themselves before handing it over.

Derrick and Karen's house

They are not the only generous individuals we encounter at Christmas. Whilst I was collecting in the High St this year, I was approached by a man who wished to make a donation of £1,000 to our Benevolent fund, on condition it was used to assist local causes. I quickly confirmed that he could indeed put such a condition on his donation and we would certainly honour his wishes. It transpired that his wife stopped Brian Holt last year and made a similar donation to us. The generosity of some people is truly staggering sometimes.

Counting up at the end of the evening

Tesco in Sunbury have also been great supporters this year. Between the two Shepperton Rotary Clubs, we collected over £3,000 outside the store. We like to think that we add to the shopping experience of their customers by parking our sleigh outside, belting out Christmas music. It looks particularly special after dark, when the sleigh’s lights look quite spectacular. People of all ages stop and admire the sleigh, and our elf (newly refurbished this year) with lots of photos taken. Tesco staff members periodically came out with hot drinks for our collectors. The Store management told us they had a lot of positive feedback from customers about Rotary’s presence at the store which was gratifying to hear. We met the management shortly after Christmas and were offered six days next December, two more than usual, which we gratefully accepted.

Our elf meets his twin at Tesco

Big Tree Night is now a well-established event during December, and several thousand people attended this year. The High Street is closed for the evening, and there are children’s rides, street food, and various stalls to interest passers by. It’s a great event to be at, and the Rotary Club had a stall, as usual. We were situated outside Trio pharmacy for the second year, and once again the pharmacy kindly allowed us to plug our lights into their electricity supply until they closed at 7.30 p.m. After that, we had a generator borrowed from a friend of Pauline’s which provided power for the rest of the evening.

Our stall at Big Tree Night

Our idea for the stall was a kind of static Treasure Hunt. The premise was that Santa has lost his sleigh somewhere in Shepperton. We have a large map of the village, and for £1 children (and often, adults) can guess where the sleigh is, by placing a numbered sticker on the map. The nearest to the correct spot wins a soft toy and £25 voucher, but everybody who enters wins a small prize, which makes it an attractive competition to enter. At times we had crowds of families gathered around our stall, and overall we collected nearly £300. Not a massive amount considering the effort involved, but it was great fun, and of course we become an integral part of a community event which is important for us.

Bees round a honey pot

I enjoyed the first meeting of the New Year, when we heard mostly hilarious stories from Santa’s experiences over Christmas. Then it was time for our annual de-briefing when we try to see what we could do better next time. All that remained now was to give cheques to the charities who helped us on four of our street collections. The deal is that if a charity helps us on a collection evening, they get 80% of what we collect that night. It’s nice to invite them to one of our meetings and make a bit of a ceremony of thanking them for their support.