A JOYFUL celebration of Christmas was held at Hawksworth Methodist Church on the evening of December 7. It was excellently organised for the village by Hazel Goodwin and she also acted as the host. Hazel has arranged these evenings for several years now and spends many hours planning them to bring something new and interesting to the event every year besides the usual carols. This year's themes could be deemed to be shepherds and local talent. Linda Summers read a humorous poem entitled The Nativity Play which featured a little boy who was sad because he was "only" a shepherd in the play. Ex teacher Hazel explained to the children present the importance of the shepherds in the Christmas story and local girl Georgina Hobson,16, told about some of her experiences as a part time shepherd.

A small choir had come along from Hawksworth C of E School along with their music teacher Margaret Lord and they sang two beautiful Christmas songs that had been written and composed by retired teacher Brad Bradshaw who now lives in the village. Brad says he has written around 60 carols over the years and is pleased that Hawksworth children are getting to sing them now. Most people who live in the village were not aware of his extraordinary talent. A lady called Mary Booth who died at the age of 102 about a decade ago and still has family in the village used to write poetry. Quite sometime before she died, she wrote a piece about her childhood Christmasses in Denton near Ilkley in the early part of the twentieth century. Dorothy Pickersgill was able to read out this account on the evening. Talented baritone John Tattersall also sang a song and led everyone in White Christmas at the end. A collection for the Candlelighters children's cancer charity was taken and raised £197.58 before coffee and mince pies were served.