The Preparation for the day seemed never ending and hard work but finally the day arrived and it was so worth the weeks of hard work and planning running up...

We had over 30 people volunteering for us on the day plus all the ones who had helped set up and decorate around the building and everyone who donated gifts and things to sell for the project........

On the day some had even dressed up to add to the fun, we had two angels (not Fairies) one rather happy elf, two younger Santa's helpers who looked great and helped Santa well, a rein deer who drove a very bright red motor trike (who later took off with the two angels and went on an adventure around Brierley Hill and surrounding area's shouting out good tidings to all (and advertising the BHP of course).

We had people from Chapel Street Estate, old/new, family and friends, Amblecote friends and family, and people from around the Brierley Hill area joining us throughout our day.

We had 15 Stalls, Hook - a -Duck, all sorts of fun Crafts for the children, Pick a Parent a Gift (a free gift for the kids to pick and wrap for their mom or dad for Christmas all kindly donated to us), Face Painting, Tombola's and much more.

Our cafe was open selling Hot Pork Sandwiches/Sausage Sandwiches for the Kids, it was a very busy session for the wonderful team of volunteers from our South Street Cafe Team selling out completely. We had two local butchers donate some of our meats for the day which was a real blessing to us a big thank you to them.....

Then we had the Children who were wide eyed as they entered Santa's Grotto, they enjoyed a story time with Santa and then received their present from him. The Grotto looked amazing some of our volunteers has worked really hard setting that up and even giving of their own trimmings to decorate it all lovely for the children.

We had been given a Christmas Food Hamper from Amblecote Christian Centre to raffle off through the door entrance tickets given out by our lovely Welcome Team, one of our regular visitors from the estate won the hamper and was pleased.

Everyone who came said they had had a fantastic day!

Though the initial costs were high to put the day together costing the BHP around £300, we raised enough to cover that and made another £150 for the BHP Projects on going work throughout the Chapel Street Estate......so that was great.

We do have a few crafts and things left over for next year (next year did i just say that?) and maybe with a longer preparation time we could come up with more free and donated things to cut down on the out lay but all in all it was a great success from relationship building, to fun times, to working together in our community......all to Gods Glory!

Andrea

On Behalf of The BHP Team