This Christmas is set to look rather different from previous years, and everyone is looking for ways to enjoy and celebrate Christmas together, even if we have to be apart.

Radstock Girl’s and Boy’s Brigade are offering one celebration that will be free and accessible to all – an outdoor Nativity trail, following the story of Christmas. Supported by the Town Council and endorsed by the three centrally based Radstock Churches, the trail will be family-friendly and fully accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Making use of Radstock’s green spaces, including the Five Arches and the Memorial Garden, as well as much of the town centre, everyone is invited to take a map and follow the story of Christmas through various installations created by local children.

“We had the idea a while ago and knew we could do it whatever the lockdown restrictions of the time,” said Kerin Adam, Girls’ and Boy’s Brigade leader.

The Brigade leaders have created videos and supplied weekly crafts to the children, aged four to sixteen, who would normally attend each week, as well as being set a challenge to create or decorate something to form part of the trail.

“Some of our families with sibling groups have taken on a larger project for one of the nativity stations, and other children are making something small that will join part of the whole,” Kerin added.

The children will be invited to attend two weeks of socially-distanced Brigade sessions between lockdown’s lift and the Christmas holidays, and will have an opportunity to create videos and other forms of media to add to the installations.

Some of the stations around the trail will feature a QR code which will take the user to a video, whilst a local artist and prior Girl’s Brigade leader will be contributing some artwork.

“We’re really glad to be able to offer something free, fun and family-friendly to Radstock this Christmas,” said Jon Peel, Boy’s Brigade leader and Deacon at Radstock Baptist Church. “All of the Churches usually do so much at Christmas for the community and a lot of the usual things aren’t possible this year. It’s fantastic that we can offer something different, but hopefully just as meaningful.”

The Nativity Trail will be opened on Saturday, 19th December, and people are encouraged to come out in force to follow the trail in safe companionship, able to wish each other a Merry Christmas and to feel a sense of local camaraderie in this prolonged period of isolation for so many.

Maps will be available from Radstock Baptist Church on 19th December, as well as several supportive local retailers, and the trail will remain in situ for the whole Christmas period.

Charlie Peel