This Week's Festive Entertainment in Fulham

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Your guide to concerts and shows providing music and fun in the run-up to Christmas

Festive events are continuing in Fulham and surrounding area in the run-up to Christmas, with carol concerts, storytelling sessions and shows offering fun and laughter for the whole family.

On Thursday, 14 December, All Saints Church, by Putney Bridge is hosting The Brain Tumour Research Campaign’s annual concert A Celebration of Christmas.

The trust, which hopes to raise £25,000 in its Christmas appeal, says All Saints was chosen because of its proximity to Charing Cross Hospital, where over 600 patients with brain tumours are diagnosed each year.

The service includes Christmas readings and carols, followed by seasonal “bites and bubbles” – celebrating the joyful season of hope and goodwill, dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of brain tumour patients and funding research.

Readers this year include Jill Baker, Sara Crowe, Charles Collingwood and Judy Bennett, Freddie Fox, Miriam Margolys, Georgina Rylance, and Alfred & Jemima Beadman (who lost their mother to a brain tumour in 2015); music is provided by
the magical All Saints Choir, with a guest performance by the Holland Park School choir.

For further information or to book tickets, contact Wendy Fulcher at wendy@btrc-charity.org
phone 0208 601 2402, or on the Brain Tumour Research Campaign website.

Barons Court Theatre is celebrating the festive season with Improvised Pantomimes, running nightly till 16 December at 7.30pm.

The theatre says the show is "An early Christmas present for all the family! Laughter, laughter and more laughter. If you like pantomimes – and who doesn't – come along to Barons Court and Very Serious People Theatre will make up a pantomime for you! The show is extremely inventive; highly original; and extremely entertaining. Christmas starts early at Barons Court – make sure you're part of it!"

Tickets, priced £12 or £10 concessions now on sale from the box office on 020 8932 4747 or Send details of performance and number of tickets required to londontheatre@gmail.com. Then pay for them, in cash, when you come to the performance.

The Bhavan, in nearby Castletown Road, W14 celebrates Christmas on Sunday 17 December at 1pm with a group of students singing carols led by by James Marr.

Everyone is welcome to this highly colourful festival and entry is free. Find out more at The Bhavan.

At Hammersmith's Eventim Apollo, the festive fun begins with Nativity! a stage show based on the popular Christmas film, with singalong songs, dancing and lots of comedy. The show runs from 13 to 17 December, at various times. Find out more and book tickets here.

It is followed by the Christmasaurus, with the debut novel from McFly star and bestselling children's author Tom Fletcher coming to Hammersmith for a special Christmas spectacular from December 21 to 28, with two shows at 1pm and 7pm on most days. The show suitable for all the family will feature music, animation, magic and some very special guests.

The Christmasaurus is proving very popular, with extra shows added to meet demand. Find out more and book tickets here.

Further north in Shepherd's Bush, at the Bush Theatre on Thursday 14 December, join Hammersmith’s very own inclusive choir, The Magic Sparks, performing some pop Christmas classics, guilty pleasures and a couple of surprises along the way to get you in the Christmas spirit.

For this one off festive extravaganza, The Magic Sparks will be performing alongside Brixton’s premier acappella women’s choir, The Electric Belles, as well as a special guest appearance from Eleanor Fanyinka.

The choir will be accompanied on the piano by novelist and musician extraordinaire, Chris Russell. So come along for a sing and a mince pie to brighten your holiday season.

The fun begins at 6.30pm in the reading room. Admission is free and no booking is necessary.

On Saturday 16 December, the Bush Theatre hosts a Storystock Christmas, a magical day of interactive storytelling, craft, drama and comedy sessions for all the family.

The programme for the day is:

Odd the Troll & a Christmas Grotto 10am
Hortense & The Shadow 11:30am
The School of Christmas Comedy 1pm
Franklin’s Flying Christmas Bookshop 2:30pm
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas 4pm

Find out more and book tickets for Storystock here.

Hammersmith's Christmas shows - panto Jack and the Beanstalk and Father Christmas for little ones - are continuing at the Lyric Theatre. However, if you are looking for something different to entertain the children, Chelsea Theatre in Worlds End is presenting Once Upon a Snowflake, from Paper Balloon Theatre Company.

Follow Liza into a colourful whirlwind of stories and adventure, led by a tiny Sprite with a fascination for snowflakes. You’ll never see a snowflake the same way again.

With a captivating blend of shadow puppetry, storytelling and enchanting original songs from Darren Clark (The Scarecrow’s Wedding, These Trees Are Made of Blood, Winner: Stiles & Drewe Award 2016), Paper Balloon present this funny, quirky and different show for family audiences aged three and up.

Once Upon a Snowflake continues until 22 December, with 10am and 2pm shows on weekdays and 2.30pm and 5.30pm shows at weekends. Find out more here.

If you haven't yet bought your Christmas tree, locally based company Shoots and Leaves, with sites including the south east corner of Fulham's Eel Brook Common, plus Little Brook Green and outside St Paul's Church is donating £5 for every one of its Nordmann Fire Trees sold to schools in Hammersith and Fulham.

"We are the only real local supplier operating in the borough year round," says Shoots and Leaves founder Hew Stevenson. "So it’s only right that we try and return something to the area.We employ a large number of people who live in H&F and we are very proud of the local credentials we’ve built up over the past 18 years."

Find out more at Shoot and Leaves.

Fulham's markets are open throughout the run- up to Christmas Day. Parsons Green Market at St Thomas Academy on New Kings Road is open on Sunday 10, 17 and on Christmas Eve, as is Bishops Park Farmers Market. Both are open from 10am till 2pm. North End Road's Market of course will also be open until Saturday 23 December.

If you have a local seasonal event you would like added to this page, send an email with the details to editor@fulhamsw6.com.

 

 

 

 

December 13, 2017