It was another good year for crib services at both churches.

The 2pm "Carols for Tiny Tots" service in Kemsing attracted many families with young children. We watched the video by the Bible Society of The Christmas Poem, thinking about how the coming of Jesus was good news because he grew to be a man, and so fulfilled God's plan to make all that is sad glad again. As always, the children enjoyed dressing up in nativity costumes, and forming our own crib scene.

At 3.45pm we held our main Crib Service, attended by many hundreds; as always it was standing room only! The birth of Jesus is good news - first and foremost because it shows how great God is, but also because he came to bring us peace with God and so to bring peace to a world that badly needs it. One lovely feature was to have, for the second year running, our 8 readings all given by children from Kemsing School - they all read so clearly, and fresh voices often help the story strike home in fresh ways.

The weather eased off; earlier in the day, it looked like we might be rained off, but we were able to have our final few carols at the well by candlelight. As we rounded off by singing "We Wish you a Merry Christmas", Christmas itself had been launched for many Kemsing families.

Then the Woodlands crib service at 5.30pm gave 50 or so people the chance to build up a crib with wooden figures, telling the story as we went with Bible readings and well-known carols. By the end of the service, we'd placed the (model) Jesus in his (model) manger, so we lit the central candle in our advent wreath: Light came into the dark world, and the light still shines today as the darkness has not grasped it.