Have a Merry Puppet Christmas

19 Dec 2006

While many people are running around the high street in the run-up to Christmas trying to find that perfect gift for a family member or loved one, a group of people from the Bridge Coffee Shop at the Holy Trinity Church in London will take time out of their busy schedules on Saturday 23 December to bring a smile to the faces of local children.

For the past three years, Lynda Alsford from the Bridge Coffee Shop has been putting on a puppet show at the Orchard infant school and this year, she came up with the idea to have a puppet show on the high street to reach out to people in this season of merrymaking. She explains, "I have been taking one of my puppets into a local infant school but I had never thought of doing more with them until I attended a seminar on puppetry. I was enthused at this point to use them more widely. I found out that our coffee shop manager, Alexandra, has a puppet too. We decided to just go for it and put on a show on our forecourt at church.

"The first puppet show was on 16 September 2006, two showings, with a repeat performance three times on the following Saturday, 23 September. This seemed to be popular and a good number stopped to watch it. The puppets went into the crowd afterwards to say hello to the children and gave them sweets. They loved it!"

The first program was so successful that Lynda and her team have decided to put on their second one, a Christmas one. Lynda says: "The puppets this time are wondering about baby Jesus, who he was and what did he do when he grew up. They go off to find out and come back excited when they find out. We hope this event will give people a bit of joy on a stressful time shopping with small kids the day before Christmas Eve and let them know that we have a Christingle service, a special children's Christmas service, on Christmas Eve."

The show will take place on the high street in Hounslow, London on Saturday 23 December at 12pm and will be about 15 minutes long. "We have three children involved in the show, Rachel, Sarah, and Lucy, who will have non speaking parts," states Lynda. "The children will be operating animal puppets and one of the other puppets, dancing to music while we have a break from holding our arms up all the time. Someone else will hold up the words for the chorus of the songs in front of the puppet theatre so we can get the crowd singing along.

"The puppets are called, Gladstone [he is somewhat mischievous - at the photo shoot he kept trying to kiss the girl puppets], Jasmine and Amanda. The animals are Billy Bear and Bobbi Bunny."

Photo caption: Lynda Alsford with Alexandra and Jasmine, Gladstone and Amanda.