Tell Cardiff About Christmas

Tamsin Llwyd Graves - Guest Contributor | 18:31, 5th November 2012

Many people take children to see Santa year after year – it’s become a well-established tradition.  So, why not take them to the Christmas Story as well?

This Christmas in Cardiff, you will be able to take your family to a professional, heart-warming piece of theatre in Cardiff city centre.

‘Christmas – The Story’ will be just as accessible as taking the kids to see Santa Claus. And you could also help as a volunteer to make the show happen.

There is no question that Cardiff needs to hear the remarkable story of Jesus’ birth. The Nativity is fading out of Christmas. The following facts make sorry reading: 

• 30% of eighteen to twenty-five year olds in Britain do not know the story at all.
• only 44% of junior school children know that Christmas is meant to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
• fewer than 2% of Christmas cards have a religious theme.
• 9 out of 10 people who identify themselves as Christians do not go to church. Their children only encounter the story via the infant school nativity play. Having heard it three or four times before the age of seven, they are unlikely to hear it again.

We can do our bit to turn those figures around. It’s the churches’ job to make it happen. Cardiff churches are already making a difference.

In 2010 and 2011, ‘Christmas – The Story’ ran, as a rolling programme almost every day, all day, for the last three weeks of December, at Tabernacl Welsh Baptist Church, opposite ‘St Davids 2’ shopping centre in the city centre.

The project was organised, staffed and funded by Cardiff churches of every denomination, all working together. Theatre professionals, both Christians and not, offered their time and talents for free and Welsh broadcasters also came on board. They believe the Cardiff Nativity will become a nationwide tradition.

We hope it will be bigger and better in 2012, but we still need volunteers to make it happen. Here are a few ways you could help:

1. Come to watch the show! Your presence in the audience for one of the 20 minute performances will be a huge encouragement. There are performances every 40 minutes, so you can pop along as a break from shopping. City centre workers can come during their lunch break.

2. Please give some time to help as a volunteer. We still need stewards, actors (on a daily rota), fund-raisers, tea-makers, drivers and support staff to get our 2012 performances on the stage. Please give any time you can.

Highfields is providing key volunteers again this year. Here’s what a few of them said about ‘Christmas – The Story’ in 2010 & 11.

‘The best thing of all is the birth of the Lord Jesus ……..it’s a fantastic communication tool….’

Steve Parnell (AKA King Herod / Wise Man)

‘It’s so amazing to really put Christ back into Christmas, in a way that is accessible to literally anyone and everyone!’

Joanna Bott (AKA Mary)

‘A wonderful way of not only entertaining Cardiff, but of reaching out and spreading the good news of Jesus’ birth to Christmas shoppers…’

Sioned Graves (AKA a Nazareth villager)

To get involved: please visit http://the-story.org.uk or follow @cardiffnativity on Twitter.