At four o'clock on a fair-yet-freezing Christmas Eve a scarfed-up, gloved-up posse of locals took a break from the sellotape and made their way up the 'fairy path' to St Nicholas's church, Salthouse...
With traditional carol-singing, crib-dressing and the obligatory candle-lit procession, the village's annual Christingle Service - in aid of the Children's Society - is specially formulated to appeal to young families.
It is always a lovely reminder that there's something a bit more to all this Christmas business than Cadbury's advent calendars, a new set of pyjamas and the latest-coloured Nintentendo DS.
It is also great fun - given the unpredictable tension garnered when combining small children, naked flames and organized religion together in a highly combustible ancient building.
This year certainly did not disappoint on the pageantry front: First there was the delighted tot who lit the advent candles. Next, the assorted hoodies - ranging in size from two foot one to five foot six - who shuffled up to assemble the 'manger-players' plus animal entourage. Bringing up the rear, a diminutive quartet, bibbed with laminated signs to represent the four compass points. They held on to a ring of red rope and were put in charge of the Produce of the World (in the form of an apple, a satsuma, a packet of coffee and a bag of crisps).
The highlight of the service - the lighting & processing of the symbolic Christingles went hitch-free. However, superb comedy ensued when the congregation came to realize, via the tell-tale teethmarks left in the apple, that 'South' - the tiniest compass-point-boy - had quietly chomped a great sly chunk out of the 'Produce of the World' stockpile!
As usual, the music - in the form of the organ-playing of the amazing Rev. Angela Dugdale MBE - was terrific; the flu-subdued caroling of locals supplemented by the hearty lungs of some of the more healthy out-of-towners - plus, of course, Angela's own superb singing voice.
Thanks to Father Phil, the Rev. Angela and the very hard-working church-wardens who made it all possible. Even the torchlit trek home through the pitch black dark was pretty magical.
We were left with only one Christmas Conundrum - what to do with our half-dozen leftover Christingle oranges. Here is our list of uses from 2008 to assist any readers facing a similar challenge in subsequent years:
Top ten things to do with your Christingle Orange...
1. Leave out the jelly babies and dolly mixture on a saucer for Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve - a refreshing change from the usual fireside mince pies and carrot.
2. Refrigerate, squeeze and enjoy for a fresh, zesty start on Christmas morning.
3. Squeeze and add cranberries, port and sugar-to-taste to make your very own gourmet D-I-Y cranberry sauce. Or Click here for a non-alcoholic Channel 4 recipe.4. Go for a Christmas Morning Constitutional and combine the candle with hedgerow snippings of holly, pine, ivy and rosehips stuck into a raw potato to make a 'natural style' table centrepiece.
5. Get the kids to draw round the orange onto the backs of any waste wrapping paper and cut out snowball decorations for the insides of their bedroom windows. For those feeling particularly ambitious: glue cotton wool on to both sides of each disc and suspend on lengths of cotton for a really sophisticated, twirling, touchy-feely version...ooh, ah!
6. Grate off the zest and use to bake up some carrot, orange and cardamon fairy cakes for any guests who fancy a change from heavy fruit cake for Christmas tea. Save a few teaspoons full to add to a mascarpone and icing sugar topping - yum yum yum.
7. Use the cocktail sticks to make small menu flags for 'vegetarian' and 'non-vegetarian' platters for your Christmas buffet table.
8. Wrap in foil to make the base of a fabulously retro 70s-style 'cheesey pineapple hedgehog'.9. Separate into individual segments for chocolate fondue dippers with a twist.
10. Use the red tape to entertain toddlers with endless games of 'fly away Peter, fly away Paul'.
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