A free show for Richmond's children
For many years I have spent part of Christmas Eve in Richmond Town Hall performing a free show for local children and their families. The Town Hall is provided free of charge and, rather than selling tickets, we invite donations for the Mayor's charity.
It has become one of those lovely jobs that is rather more than a booking. The hall fills with children, parents and grandparents, many of whom come back year after year. The Mayor usually attends too, and at the end of the show thanks everyone for coming.
Santa's Busy Day
The show is called Santa's Busy Day. It is a one-man show: I introduce it and perform all the characters myself while Hazel is at home making the final preparations for our own family Christmas.
Santa is, of course, extremely busy. His elves Ralph and Alph are there to help — although, as is usually the case with puppets, helping does not necessarily mean that everything goes according to plan.
The children are very much part of the action. At one point a child is chosen to come out and catch a fish from a bucket. The fish is intended for Santa's supper, but Sammy the Seal has other ideas and steals it. I eventually catch Sammy and bring him out for a good telling-off. The children are asked what we should do with him and invariably decide that he should be forgiven, provided he promises to be good from now on. A few of the children then come forward to stroke Sammy before he goes away.
And then the Hoss arrives…
When Santa's Busy Day has finished, the Mayor normally says a few words. But nobody is rushing for the door, because another Christmas Eve tradition is about to begin.
T'Old Hoss arrives in the Town Hall.
The Poor Old Hoss tradition belongs to Richmond rather than to Jolly Good Productions, but the timing means that our Christmas show and the Hoss have become wonderfully linked on Christmas Eve. The performers enter the same hall, surrounded by families who have just watched the puppet show, and Christmas Eve suddenly moves from one tradition into another.
A Richmond tradition
T'Old Hoss — also known as the Poor Old Hoss — is a traditional Christmas custom associated with Richmond. For anyone interested in the history behind it, there are useful accounts at Calendar Customs and The Time Travellers Guild.
A very Jolly Good Christmas Eve
For me, the pleasure of the morning is its simplicity. The Town Hall provides the venue, I bring the puppet theatre and the characters, families come along, and donations are collected for the Mayor's charity. Then the Hoss arrives and Richmond's older Christmas tradition carries on.
Afterwards I pack everything away and head home to Hazel and our own family Christmas. It is a working Christmas Eve, but one I would miss enormously if it were not there.
