St Mary’s Hosts Christmas Community Festival

This December St Mary’s University, Twickenham is to hold its first ever Christmas Community Festival, a two-day celebration of the festive season open to local residents, students and staff. Held on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th December, the free and not for profit event will see St Mary’s historic Strawberry Hill campus transformed into its very own winter wonderland with seasonal food, drink, gifts and festive entertainment. On Saturday, visitors will be able to browse Christmas market stalls, visit Santa’s Grotto, enjoy Carols by Candlelight and be part of St Mary’s very own Christmas light switch-on. Whilst visitors will have the opportunity to watch a nativity play followed by community Mass on Sunday. St Mary’s Students’ Union President Ryan Jones who spearheaded the Festival said, “This is the first time anything like this has ever been done and we really wanted to bring both the local community and the students of St Mary’s together. I could think of no better time to do it than Christmas and hopefully we will capture the Christmas Community Spirit. If successful we hope to make this an annual event and keep the Christmas spirit high in the local community.” A full timetable of events: Saturday 6th December 1-4pm: Local community market stalls, games, Santa’s Grotto and live music 1.30-2.15pm: Christmas Big Band Concert 4-5pm: Carols by Candlelight 5pm: Christmas light switch-on Sunday 7th December 5pm: Children’s nativity 6pm: Community Mass in the Chapel