The Swansea Christmas Parade always marks the start of Christmas for me. For the past few years I’ve hosted the stage outside the Dragon Hotel where the parade comes to a climax as Father and Mother Christmas stop on their sleigh and we start the countdown to the turning on of the city’s Christmas lights.
I’m always amazed by the turn out. By 4.30pm the streets are already full of families choosing their favoured spot behind the barriers. As the parade doesn’t actually start down on Princess Way until 5pm there’s plenty of time to entertain the crowds before on the main stage.
Swansea City Council always put together a wide variety of entertainment and this year was no different. First on were the Victorian Carol Singers. During the summer months the carollers perform as Sea Shanty Group Baggyrinkle. Come the darker nights and colder weather and they turn into a festive scene from a Charles Dickens novel. Armed only with a penny whistle to give them a starting note and joined by their good ladies and wives (or the strumpets voluntary as they call themselves) the Victorian Carollers started the evening off in terrific, traditional fashion.
Next to the stage was Dan Stockton. Dan is a Swansea lad who has just completed a music degree in Bristol. Dan chose a repertoire of the cool Christmas classics made famous by the likes of Bing, Perry and Bublé. What a voice!! If you see his name on any posters this Christmas make sure you buy a ticket.
Talking about incredible voices next up was Carolyn Harris. Carolyn is the force behind ‘Everyone Deserves A Christmas’, the hamper Charity that has delivered thousands of hampers to families who might not have a traditional Christmas otherwise. We’ve been friends for over 50 years. Every year she asks me to produce a song to help raise awareness and some money for the Charity. She has too much dirt on me for me to say no. This year I turned the tables and asked her to sing with me and as I have too much dirt on her as well she couldn’t say no either. This was the world premiere of the single and I expect it won’t be the last time you hear it this year.
Next up were Dancerama, a theatrical school based in Llansamlet. The whole troop were amazing singing all of the up tempo Christmas classics with dance routines to match. They were joined by an old girl (I mean she’s still in her teens), Justine Afante. Justine won ITV’s The Voice Kids back in 2020 and she still sounds absolutely wonderful.
After a short break the parade arrived. It’s a real mixture of marching groups like the City of Swansea Pipe Band and the Royal Fusionaires and community groups and organisations all dressed to the Christmas Nines.
At one point the Parade came to a bit of a standstill. Suddenly the stage was stormed by what looked like a human carrot. It soon became clear that somewhere in the costume was Swansea Legend Kev Johns who was part of the Swansea Pantomime float. We handed Kev a microphone and as Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine was being played out on the big speakers Kev helped the crowd join in a rousing chorus before disappearing down the Kingsway.
So many brownie groups, football and rugby clubs and Ballet schools marched with smiling faces cheering themselves as I read out their names but for me one group stood out and almost made time stand still…Bells for Heaven.
As the various groups in the parade come thick and fast, and sometimes not in the order we were expecting, it sometimes takes me a moment to work out who is marching past the stage. Occasionally on the night I’d call out to the group to turn their banners towards me for me to read their name and give them a shout out.
The ‘Bells for Heaven’ group had been organised by the ‘Joseph’s Smile’ Charity. The charity was created in memory of Joseph Yeandle who sadly lost his fight to cancer in December 2021. The charity provides grants to children to access life saving or living changing medical treatment or equipment currently not available to them on the NHS.
I think it’s incredibly brave of the families and friends of Joseph to found this charity in his name but also to choose the picture of Joseph and that wonderful smile to represent what they do. It is the perfect symbol of what they do and why they do it, but I can’t imagine how they feel every time they see that picture.
Society has changed so much in my lifetime. This week I was talking about the ‘Bells for Heaven’ march to a woman in her 60’s. She told me that her husband’s family had lost a child at the age of 2 but she was rarely if ever talked about. It was only in the later years of her mother in law’s life that the full story came out. How the mother was encouraged to have another child as soon as possible to help her forget and to help her ‘get over it’!!!
The thing is, we never ‘get over it’ and neither should we. These are valued members of our family who we will remember with love and tenderness. The Bells group followed a specially commissioned model of an angel cradling a child and behind the angel walked old and young people carrying lit up stars each with the name of a child who is no longer with us. The idea is to encourage people to ring a bell at midday on Christmas Eve for every child spending Christmas in Heaven.
It made me think that next time I would like a star with the name of my grandson Gulliver who is sadly no longer with us. Gulliver is a name regularly mentioned in our house and his photograph appears alongside that of his sister and brother. To help keep his memory alive tomorrow I will walk from the Principality Building Society in Mumbles to the Pier to help raise money for the Swansea Bay University Health Board’s Cwtch Clos appeal.
Some people say Christmas comes too early every year but this year, after all we’ve been through, for me the spirit of Christmas can’t come quickly enough. I want candles and tinsel and plastic snow. I want joy and goodwill to all men, and I want to remember those who are no longer with us.
On a similar note next Thursday I will be performing at the Maggies Christmas concert at the Swansea Arena. As well as singing ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ with Steve Balsamo and that duet with Carolyn Harris I will also be singing ‘Left Behind’, a song about loved ones old and new who we will think about and miss this Christmas.
A few weeks ago I thought it would be good to put a video together and asked through social media if people would send me photographs of their loved ones that I could include. I was totally overwhelmed by the response. I also miscalculated the emotional impact putting together the song and video would have on me.