Archived page:
CHRISTMAS 2007
Please visit our
Christmas in Matlock website for Christmas updates
"THE BETHLEHEM EXPERIENCE" WEEKEND
at Steep Turnpike Church, Matlock
Fri 30th Nov - Sun 2nd Dec 2007
All events are FREE - just turn up!
Three day Chrismas event
(runs alongside Matlock Victorian Christmas Market)
Friday 30th November:
FILM NIGHT
Watch The Nativity In Bethlehem
4.30pm:
"It's A Boy!" (U)
7.30pm:
"The Nativity" (PG)
(details below right)
Amazing! Atmospheric!
Fun!
FREE!
Friday Films - see below right.
On Saturday, collect your "local Bethlehem currency" (free, from the Roman census taker) and step into "Bethlehem Marketplace" to become part of a colourful, exotic scene. Follow the tempting smells and taste food from the stalls. Make a craft, try an activity, 'buy' from the market stalls! Find the stable with the baby king, and the donkey and other animals (yes, they're real and you can stroke them!) Kids can enter the "Mission Incredible" Competition - the marketplace characters (even the scary Roman soldiers) will help! You don't have to be a child to appreciate "The Bethlehem Experience" - it's for everyone.
On Sunday, "CAROLS IN BETHLEHEM" is the "The Bethlehem Experience" finale. Seating is on hay bales (bring a cushion if you prefer!) Celebrate! See Mary, Joseph, shepherds and angels - Hear their songs and stories.
Saturday 1st December
12noon - 4.00pm:
"THE BETHLEHEM EXPERIENCE"
with
"MISSION INCREDIBLE"
Stable scene
Donkey
& other animals
(yes, they're real and you may stroke them!)
Sunday 2nd December
2pm:
Ends 4pm latest - ready for the Firework Display which closes the Victorian Market.
"CAROLS IN BETHLEHEM"
The finale to "The Bethlehem Experience".
Festive refreshments
immediately afterwards!
View our first
"Bethlehem Experience" Photo Gallery
Remember - "The Bethlehem Experience" has events over 3 days this year!
Mark it in your Christmas diary EARLY!
SEEN THE
POSTER?
Now
Try the Jigsaw!
click the picture
(play online)
'Bethlehem Activities' to do straight away:
-
Read the whole amazing
Bethlehem story (for children)
or the Bethlehem story (for adults)
-
Watch the Bethlehem story video (Click on "part 3")
- Discover the carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and how it came to be written!
- Visit our Bethlehem Experience Photo Gallery
- "TREASURES OF THE SNOW"
If you still have a video player, why not borrow theTreasures of the Snow
video from the church library during your Christmas preparations? Set in snowy winter Switzerland, this classic tale will captivate the whole family. It's perfect for a wintery day!
- CHRISTMAS FUN IDEAS FOR KIDS
Visit our Kids Christmas Fun Ideas page for free fun activities to get you ready for Christmas!
Getting ready for Christmas in Matlock . . .
Are you busy? Daft question - Christmas is coming! You don't really have the time to read this do you? Especially if you're a mum! You feel the urgent need to make Christmas special - so you shop, decorate, do extra kindnesses. Did you go to the Victorian Christmas Market? The Bethlehem Experience? The Highfields Christmas Concert? Were you looking for some 'Christmas Spirit'?If you're going through a tough time, you may be finding despair instead - you wouldn't be the first, and it isn't surprising. We know the Nativity Story (all those school plays!), and we got a glimmer of something special. But somehow the rest of it just eluded us, or faded over the years.
Why don't we just give up on Christmas? Because it's about a power and purpose stronger and more incredible than any film (yes, even "Harry Potter") - and it's not fiction.
The story beyond the school nativity play is where the true hope of Christmas lies - in a baby who's more than a baby. He came to rescue a people at war with God - that's why the angels declared "PEACE!'
So don't kill yourself in 'making Christmas special' - it already is. Give yourself a break - take time out to discover the rest of the plot. It could transform your celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel - "God with us".
You're welcome to drop in!
*
KID'S CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES IN MATLOCK
Sunday 23rd December
(afternoon)
(please email Steep Turnpike Church if you are interested)
*
"READY, STEADY, CHRISTMAS!"
Sunday 23rd December
6.30pm
Christmas Carol Service for the whole Family
featuring
Youth Groups
& other special items
Festive Refreshments
afterwards
see also "Carols in Bethlehem" - Sunday 2nd November
*
CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE 2007
Tuesday 25th December
11am
For all the family - give your Christmas Day a real lift!
*
IT'S A BOY (U)
4.30pm, Fri 30th NovAction packed and hilarious! Your kids will love the three little quails who witness the birth of a baby king in Bethlehem - and their adventures as they race to save him from the evil ruler.
An excellent quality animation, with celebrity voice-overs and music by celebrities Joe Pasquale, Cannon and Ball, Steven Berkoff, Russell Bolter, Graham Cole and Sir Cliff Richard.
THE NATIVITY STORY (PG)
7.30pm, Fri 30th NovFor teens: Fun-loving Mary and her husband-to-be Joseph live in poverty-stricken Nazareth. Then an angel's news shakes their world. They survive sandstorms, bandits and a scary river crossing - only to discover that the power-crazed ruler has turned his attention to their new-born baby.
The three wise men add unexpected touches of humour to this well known historical story.
O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in; Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel.
Author: Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
Micah 5:2 (New International Version - UK)
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