Ilkeston - It's Chri .... stmas!
w/e 19 December 2010
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
In the words of Noddy Holder at the end of Slade's seasonal pop
song that always gets an airing at this time of year "It's
Chri --- stmas!" and at this final weekend before Christmas
Day, shoppers in Ilkeston were out in force on Saturday morning
with queues forming in many shops. At this butcher's on South
Street, the queue actually spilled out onto the pavement and
we can expect similar pictures all week at other businesses too.
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It was also busy on the Market Place and this is just one of
a number of places in town where holly wreathes and other festive
decorations could be purchased.
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Another market stall had a good display of Christmas cards, wrapping
paper, calendars, and paper Christmas sacks or bags. This area
of the East Midlands around Ilkeston was cold and snow free but
elsewhere in the country, and as close as the West Midlands,
heavy snowfalls had caused many sporting fixtures to be cancelled
and huge disruption to anyone who needed to travel by road, rail
or air. So any cards purchased from here this weekend may not
be delivered until after Christmas.
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On the Lower Market Place another stall was selling vases of
artificial flowers and was attracting a lot of attention especially
from the male section of shoppers. I suspect many wives and girlfriends
could be waking up on Christmas morning with one of these as
a present.
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These two young ladies on Bath Street were certainly adding to
the Christmas spirit but it was all in a good cause as they were
collecting for the MacMillan Nurses charity.
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Part of our Saturday morning though was spent in St Mary's Church
helping to decorate the building. Our main contribution was to
add baubles to the Christmas tree.
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Other helpers were busy making flower arrangements, cleaning
the pews, decorating the window sills and the pulpit, fixing
holly wreathes to the pillars, erecting the crib and a host of
other jobs in preparation for the Christmas services.
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And a reminder of the reason for the season amid all this business
both within the church and outside around the town centre was
visible in this wooden Nativity scene that had been placed near
the church entrance. Oh and in case you were wondering that Slade
song is "Merry Christmas Everybody".
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