Each year, the Eastcote Festival Team organises Eastcote’s Christmas lights and celebrate their switch-on, and the traditional start to the festive period, by hosting the Eastcote Christmas Festival and this year was no exception.

Sally Prendergast, a parishioner at St Lawrence Church and member of the Eastcote Festival Team, is the inspirational force behind the concept. Sally says “I had an idea earlier in the year to create a celebration of Christian faith in textiles. Having chatted about the idea with Revd Wendy Brooker, she suggested that a Christian banner should feature in the Eastcote Christmas Festival. That simple idea has captured the hearts and minds of many as the four different banners journey around the community. They are special; there’s something about them that makes people smile!”

Sally and her team of helpers have created the basic designs which volunteers are then decorating by sewing coloured buttons on to the fabric, bringing the vibrancy and colours of the design to life. Sally is keen to hear from any individual, group or association that would like to sew a button on. Sally will bring one of the banners to you, together with a selection of buttons, needle and thread. Another member of the Eastcote Festival Team, Sue Cobb, the Team’s Schools, Churches and Groups Liaison Officer, is supporting Sally and actively reaching out to congregations, groups and schools to encourage them to participate in the Eastcote Christmas Festival in a number of ways
All four Banners will make their way around the Borough before doing a tour of Eastcote businesses and then being displayed on the St Lawrence Church stall at the Eastcote Christmas Festival, where members of the public, and the Mayor, will be able to sew on the last few buttons. The banners will then take pride of place in the Candlelight Parade which will pass through the town before arriving at the nativity themed stage for the start of the Eastcote Christmas Service. After the Festival, the banners will hang in their new permanent home on four pillars in St Lawrence Church.