Christmas is fast approaching and there’s plenty going on in Grimsby and northern Lincolnshire to get you in the festive spirit.
Below you’ll find listings of various events including fairs, markets, concerts, pantos and parties which are taking place in the area over the next few weeks.
-
The Christmas lights switch-on in Grimsby marked the start of the festive season. Picture: Ray Corke
It will be updated when new events are announced. You can also tell us about anything not currently listed by commenting below or by e-mailing mark.page@northcliffemedia.co.uk
26 Nov – 2 Dec
– Get into the Christmas spirit with the Friends of Middlethorpe Primary School.
The group will hold a Christmas fair on Friday, November 30 at 3.45pm – which will be bursting with fun activities, including tombolas, a raffle, toy stall and much more.
Father Christmas himself will also be there and admission is free.
nbsp
– Fusion Youth Theatre will be presenting their adaptation of The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 1 and Sunday, December 2.
The group will be performing the tale at the Grimsby Minster and the Grimsby Central Hall.
The story follows Clara who receives a very special present, a Nutcracker Soldier, one Christmas and as she falls asleep she enters an incredible dream where toys come alive and flowers dance.
The Nutcracker opens on Saturday December 1, 7.30pm for a preview at the Grimsby Minster before it moves to the main stage at the Grimsby Central Hall on Sunday December 2, 2.30pm 7.30pm.
Tickets are £7 and £4, children under five are free, and can be bought from the Caxton Theatre Box Office 01472 346251 and the Central Hall Box Office 01472 355025.
nbsp
– Grimsby’s You Can Sing Vocal Academy are bringing their Christmas Through the ’70s and ’80s show to Cleethorpes Memorial Hall on Saturday, December 1, from 7.30pm.
Members of the Glee-style singing group will perform festive tunes such as Last Christmas and War Is Over, as well as other pop hits, such Blame It On The Boogie, It’s Raining Men, I Will Survive and Holding Out For A Hero.
All tickets for the show cost £5 and under-fives go free.
Some seats may be available on the night, but book early to avoid disappointment.
For more, call 07960 582207 or e-mail angela_pearson@hotmail.co.uk
nbsp
– Grimsby and Cleethorpes Ladies’ Choir will perform festive favourites at their Christmas concert.
Special guests at the performance on Saturday, December 1 include Carlton Main Frickley and Colliery Bane.
They are currently part of the eleventh best brass band in the world and have appeared on radio and TV numerous times. The choir and band will perform a mixed programme of Christmas and popular music, and you can also get involved because there will be the chance to participate.
The concert takes place at the Central Hall, in Duncombe Street, Grimsby, from 7.30pm and tickets cost £10 to £12. They can be obtained from the Central Hall box office by calling 01472 355025.
nbsp
– Father Christmas will be the guest of honour at Nettleton Village Hall on Saturday, December 1.
He will be opening the Nettleton Joint Churches Christmas Bazaar – where you can view a wide range of gifts and crafts.
The event will be held from 2pm to 4pm and all proceeds are for Nettleton Parish Church and Nettleton Methodist Church.
nbsp
– A Christmas fayre featuring various stalls is being held from 2pm on Saturday, December 1, at Greenacres Care Home, in Grimsby Road, Caistor.
nbsp
– Humberston CofE School is hosting a Christmas fair on Saturday, December 1 from 11am to 1pm.
There will not only be all the usual stalls and raffle – but a chance to meet Father Christmas himself, too.
nbsp
– There’ll be plenty of festive fun on offer at the Christmas craft fair at Great Limber, from 11am to 4pm on Saturday, December 1.
Craft stalls, tombola, cake stalls, mulled wine, jacket pots, soup, mince pies, raffle.
50p entrance. For more information call 01469 560930.
nbsp
Father Christmas will be bringing two of his reindeer to Alfords Garden Centre, this festive season.
The centre, opposite Morrisons in Grimsby Road, will hold a special Christmas weekend to open Santa’s grotto on Saturday, December 1 and Sunday, December 2.
And father Christmas is bringing two special little helpers – real live reindeer Prancer and Dancer.
Sadly, the reindeer can only appear this weekend at the opening of the grotto, due to training commitments in the North Pole.
However, there will be plenty more opportunities to visit Santa’s Grotto at the garden centre, every Saturday from 10am until 4pm and every day until Christmas from Thursday, December 20.
For further information, call the centre on 01472 871280.
nbsp
– A Christmas Art Market will run over two days at The Ropewalk in Barton.
In previous years the market was held for just one day, but due to it’s popularity with 35 artists and crafts people selling their goodies, it will run from Saturday, December 1 till Sunday, December 2.
Lining the corridors of the venue will be stalls full of original hand-made gifts, cards, textiles, glass and artwork.
The Christmas Art Market will be open between 10am and 4pm on both days and admission is free.
Also at The Ropewalk on Saturday, December 1, will be the opening of The Ropewalk’s annual Christmas Show in the Artspace and Gallery One.
nbsp
– You better not pout, you better not cry as Santa will be making an early visit to Ludborough to collect Christmas wish lists on Sunday, December 2.
Lincolnshire Wolds Railway is inviting both young and old to meet the man himself.
Steam trains will be running every hour from 10.45am to 3.45pm and a family runabout ticket for two adults and four children costs £18 which allows unlimited travel throughout the day.
Parking is free at Ludborough and the station has a gift shop and museum.
For more information call 01507 363881 or visit www.lincolnshirewoldsrailway.co.uk
3 Dec – 9 Dec
– Do you fancy taking the kids to meet Santa, learning how to make that perfect Christmas floral centre piece – and get some money off the shopping too?
Then get to Pennell’s garden centre on Tuesday, December 4, where from 5pm you can do all that and more, while raising money for local branches of Mind and the Motor Neurone Association.
Admission is £2 for adults or £1 for children. Visits to Santa – including a toy – are £5.
nbsp
– The Grimsby and District Electronic Organ Society will hold its December Concert – Mince Pie Night – on Wednesday, December 5.
It will take place at the Cromwell Banqueting Suite, Kings Road, Cleethorpes.
Guest Organist will be Andrew Nix, and the music begins at 7.30pm.
Admission costs £8 for guests, £1 for members, with annual membership details on request.
Refreshments – including mince pies – are available, and there will be a raffle.
More information is available on 01472 316936.
nbsp
– A beauty salon is helping make wishes come true this Christmas.
Staff at Beauty Barn, in Bargate, Grimsby, will be raffling a hamper of the finest creams and treatments worth £150 to raise money for When You Wish Upon A Star.
Tickets will be available at the salon’s shopping evening on Wednesday, December 5, from 4pm to 8pm.
Tickets will cost £1. For more, call 01472 357333.
nbsp
– Parkway Cinema in Cleethorpes is hosting a festive musical spectacular with all the trimmings.
It’s Bloomin’ Christmas Again, the second annual Cleethorpes In Bloom Christmas Concert is taking place on Thursday, December 6.
The show will include performances of classic songs from the big West End musicals as well as rousing renditions of Christmas carols.
Returning for this year’s show are classical singers Leroy Vickers and Martin Jackson, and the Kingsway Printers Cleethorpes Band, while appearing for the first time are the Louth Male Voice Choir and 17-year-old soprano Jodie Watson.
Compere for the evening will be Compass FM presenter Richard Lyon.
Tickets for It’s Bloomin’ Christmas Again are £12.50 and £11.50 for concessions, and are available online at www.parkwaycinemas.co.uk, by calling on 01472 290100 or in person from the Parkway Cinema in Kings Road, Cleethorpes.
nbsp
– Christmas is coming early to Grimsby’s Abbeygate.
On Thursday, December 6, there will be entertainment from St Martin’s School Choir, Earth Bound Misfits, AM Freedom Freestyle Dance Academy, celebrity guest appearances and a charity Christmas Wish Tree from 5pm to 7.30pm.
There will also be hot roast sandwiches, mulled wine and mince pies.
nbsp
– Acclaimed West End actor James Hyland, brings his unique stage adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel to the Ropery Hall, Barton, in the run up to Christmas.
The production on Thursday, December 6, begins at 7.30pm and tickets cost £10 in advance or £12 on the door. They can be booked online at www.roperyhall.co.uk, by phone on 01652 660380 or in person at Ropery Hall’s Craft Gallery. Parental discretion is advised for children under seven.
nbsp
– TV’s ‘Queen of Clean’ Kim Woodburn takes the role of the Wicked Stepmother in this year’s blockbuster pantomime at the Grimsby Auditorium.
Be transported into the mystical, magical land of fairy godmothers, 2 very ugly sisters, a lovable Buttons to pull on your heart strings, a dashing prince and of course the beautiful Cinderella.
Watch as Cinderella is transformed into a dazzling princess before going to the ball. Along with the exquisite costumes, real ponies and a multitude of pulsating pop songs, you will not want to miss this year’s show.
Performances start on Friday, December 7 and continue until Boxing Day. Tickets are £16 for adults and £12.50 for children and concessions. To book call 0844 871 3016
nbsp
– The Orpheus Male Voice Choir are joined by the Kingsway Printers Cleethorpes Band for an evening of seasonal entertainment on Saturday, December 8 at 7.30pm at Grimsby Central Hall.
Christmas is never complete without a selection box and this one will be full of musical delights. One layer will have choice numbers from the Orpheus’ repertoire; another will have some golden nuggets from the Kingsway Printers Cleethorpes Band, and there will be some tempting clusters as band and choir unite.
Tickets cost £10 for front circle, £8 for back circle and £6 for stalls. They can be bought from Central Hall box office, call 01472 355025.
nbsp
– Caistor will be packed with festive cheer next weekend as the annual Christmas tree festival gets underway.
Organised by Caistor Parish Church, the event will take place from Friday, December 7, to Monday, December 10, at the Parish Church.
All proceeds are for the church and St Andrew’s Children’s Hospice.
For more information, call 01472 851001.
nbsp
– A festive carol service will take place on the village green in Barnoldby-le-Beck at 6pm on Saturday, December 8.
All residents are invited to attend and are asked to bring a torch and wrap up warmly.
A collection will be taken for St Helen’s Church.
10 Dec – 16 Dec
– The New County Choir will be performing their seasonal Christmas Concert at a new venue, Ropery Hall in Barton.
The Choir, under the direction of Richard Mabbott and with Peter Sproston on piano, will be performing Songs and Cries of London by Bob Chilcott, a vibrant and varied choral cantata in five movements which evoke a contemporary impression of London’s sights, sounds, and moods. The music is irresistible, by turn contemplative and thrilling.
Members will also be performing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols which this year is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its first performance at Hereford.
Other seasonal items will also be performed and there will also be a bar and raffle.
The concert is being held on Saturday, December 15 starting at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £5 and bought by phoning 01652 660380 or in person at The Ropewalk’s Craft Gallery.
nbsp
– Join in the Traditional Family Christmas Carols event by The Grimsby Philharmonic Society at Central Hall.
The group is sure to get you in that festive, merry spirit as they share their talented vocals.
Some of the carols will be accompanied by Janet Fulton, on percussion, and Joan Date, on the piano, and they will be conducted by Susan Hollingworth.
There will also be two local and up-and-coming young soloists, Abigail Pocklington and Zoe Everatt, singing your favourites.
Traditional Family Christmas Carols will take place on Saturday, December 15, from 7.30pm.
Tickets cost £9 for front circle, £8 for back circle and £6 for stalls. They can be bought from Central Hall box office, call 01472 355025
17 Dec – 23 Dec
– The Salvation Army is holding the concert at St Peter’s Church in St Peter’s Avenue, Cleethorpes, on Wednesday, December 19, at 7pm.
nbsp
– Party night, Christmas special, The Beachcomber, North Sea Lane, Cleethorpes, on Friday, December 21. Call 01472 812666 for more information.
nbsp
– The critically acclaimed CentA Stage Theatre Company present a pantomime for all the family with Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at Grimsby Central Hall on Saturday, December 22 at 7pm.
They blend the traditional storyline with hilarious different characters and sidelines including larger than life ‘dwarfs’. Add sidesplitting odd job men, an evil queen, a debonair hero, a simply divine Snow White, and this Christmas you have “the” pantomime for all the family.
Tickets are £7-£9 and are available from the Central Hall Box Office on 01472 355025.
24 Dec – 1 Jan
– If your Boxing Day feels flat and dull following the excitement of Christmas, why not inject some soul into it?
Soul-City will present a Motown and soul event at the Bird’s Eye Club, Ladysmith Road, from 7pm until late.
There will also be an appearance from special guest DJ Dave Jowett, of Doncaster.
Tickets, which are on sale at the club now, cost £2 for members and £3 for non-members.