This year's Celebrate took place on Thursday 18th December at St Paul's, in Skelmersdale. 
Concert day arrived with wind and rain, and the choir darted in to soundcheck before the doors opened and our guests scurried in. A sold out church took a while to fill, but before we knew it the lights were dipped and we were on our opening number. The strains of O Come O Come Emmanuel drifted around the church with a beautiful still organ drone, leading to a glorious twelve string introduction to Unto Us a Boy is Born. Chris came and welcomed us to the church and the evening, before we sang the evocative Chris De Burgh classic A Spaceman Came Travelling. Carol of the Bells came before a reading by David from Isaiah, followed by the epic O Holy Night, with solos from Amanda, Jack and Chris. The audience joined us to Ding Dong Merrily on High, before we tackled the treacherous but great fun Holly and the Ivy. Liz read to us The Inclusive Christ, before we welcomed everyone with the beautiful At This Table, then we all sang O Come All Ye Faithful. Sia’s Santa’s Coming For Us marked a change in the mood as we moved towards the interval with Austin’s Hello Christmas! Surprise flowers for Austin and Carole marked their Golden Wedding Anniversary in the church where they got married, and we all took a short break to enjoy a mince pie and a drink. 
Our second half opened with a lesson in chords rudely disrupted by the realisation we had no drummer! Eventually he reappeared and we got things under way with the lively Merry Christmas, Everybody by Slade. We took our sides for Good King Wenceslas, then bemoaned the fact that it was many sleeps still to Christmas before we sang Leona Lewis’ One More Sleep, with smashing solo from Nicky. ReMix sang the moving Christmas Always Finds Me, before Reflect brought the snow with Let it Snow, triggering the start of the closing sequence. The lights dimmed a little more for the glorious Believe, and the final poem from Sarah brought the lights down to just candles as the choir sang probably our favourite of the Rutters- Candelight. The sparkling tree, the snow falling, the stillness in the room and the beautiful singing was a truly magical moment. The strains of Hark the Herald Angels Sing brought us back to reality and Chris came to give us a final blessing before we raised the roof with Jesus What a Wonderful Child, with Millie giving us a gospel solo in the middle! 

We were overjoyed with how well the night had gone, and retreated contentedly to our homes to begin Christmas in earnest!