Advent calendars are great, counting down to Christmas and helping build excitement. Traditional Advent calendars had little pictures telling the Christmas story in preparation for the joyful celebration of Jesus’ birth. Then they started having chocolates in, before developing into today's extravagant calendars including sweets, cosmetics, even beer!

All good fun, but can sometimes seem a little over the top. So at St Bart’s we also have a Reverse Advent Calendar – instead of getting something out, we put something in each day; collecting food and other items which will be used to make up Christmas dinner hampers for families in our Parish Community.

We are invited to join in as much or as little as we are able and to bring everything to church no later than Sunday 21st December* so that the hampers can be put together and distributed in time for Christmas. Any financial contributions will be used to buy fresh goods just before delivering.

*Any items received later than 21st December will be passed on to a local food bank.

If you would like to join in, please view or download the attached Calendar which includes a list of suggested items. Printed copies can be collected from the church.  Please drop of collected items to the church on Sundays or during the Open Church times during the week.