OUR churches will be packed again this Christmas as parishes host a variety of festive activities.

Anglican worshippers in south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are celebrating the birth of Jesus with events ranging from carol-singing in the streets to displays of Christmas trees and cribs.

Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral, in High Street, Old Portsmouth, will hold three identical carol services for the second year running. More than 2,000 people will join the cathedral choir at 3pm on December 20, and at 7.30pm on December 22 and 23. It will also hold two identical crib services at 3pm and 4.30pm on Christmas Eve.

Apart from carol services, many churches are laying on special activities. Nativity cribs will be on display at All Saints Church, Botley, from December 12-14. The ‘Crib Fest 08’ includes cribs contributed by those living in Botley, Curdridge and Durley, some of which are being made specially for the occasion. The church is open daily, and festival ends at 6.30pm on the Saturday with a carol-sing around the cribs.  Worshippers can dress up as a character from the Nativity story.

Worshippers at Holy Rood Church, Stubbington will host a ‘Live Nativity’ at the church for the second year running on December 13. Parents can bring children to meet the shepherds, angels and kings, to stroke some of the animals in the Nativity scene, and to take part in Christmas craft from 10am-1pm.

Several churches will dramatise the Nativity story. St Mary’s Church in Warsash will be transformed into the inn at Bethlehem on December 19 and 20. The Nativity by David Farr is a full-length play with music. The idea is that the audience mingles with the cast in the inn before events unfold.

Young people from Somers Town will take part in Follow The Star, a musical at St Peter’s Church, Playfair Road, Southsea. It happens at 1pm and 7pm on December 20 and at 1pm and 5pm on December 21. It is being performed in the church itself, and it helps to celebrate the church’s 125th anniversary. Tickets, priced at £6 and £4, are available on 023-9273 2785.

The youth drama group at St Wilfrid’s Church, Cowplain, is staging Topsy Turvy Christmas - a sing-along play for all the family. It happens at 7pm on December 12 and 13, and entrance is free.

Meanwhile, the family service at Holy Trinity Church, Blendworth, at 11am on December 14 will be an unrehearsed nativity play involving the whole congregation. All are invited to come in costume. Carols will be sung at appropriate points as the story unfolds.

And there will be many contributions to charities. An annual Churches Homeless Action scheme involves worshippers giving gift vouchers so presents can be bought for homeless people, disadvantaged families and asylum seekers. The vouchers will be handed over at a carol service in St Mary’s Church, Fratton, at 12noon on December 19.

The annual toy service at All Saints, Denmead, is at 9.30am on December 14. Donated toys are sent to a family refuge centre. And Christ Church, Portsdown will collect toys for the Roberts Centre in Portsmouth, on December 14 as well.

Carol-singers from St Mark’s Church, North End, will sing outside Somerfield supermarket from 11am on December 20. Worshippers from churches in Waterlooville will do the same in their local precinct at 12noon the same day. Other churches will also sing carols outdoors - there are carols around Clanfield Pond from 7pm on December 19, and carols on The Green, Titchfield, from 7pm on December 17.

Several churches have already hosted Christmas tree festivals – St Saviour’s Church, Stamshaw, St Wilfrid’s Church, Fratton, and St John’s Church, Locks Heath, all hosted hundreds of visitors last week. They viewed Christmas trees decorated by groups from each local community. And the 12th annual Brighstone Christmas tree festival involved more than 100 decorated trees in St Mary’s Church, Brighstone, and St Peter and St Paul Church, Mottistone, as well as the Methodist Church and Wilberforce Hall in Brighstone last week. Graham Elderfield, chief executive of the Isle of Wight hospice, and the island’s High Sheriff, Alan Titchmarsh, both lit trees.

And – before the Christmas season properly starts – one Gosport church will remind us what Advent is all about with an alternative worship service. St Thomas the Apostle, Elson, will host the Blesséd Community’s ‘Pregnant with Expectation’ at 7.30pm on December 14. It will focus on the fact that we are called to watch and wait for the incarnation during December.

Priest-in-charge the Rev Simon Rundell said: “The season of Advent involves waiting and watching, and we aim to help people to connect with that feeling of hope and expectation through a deeply moving encounter with the sacraments, and keeping Christmas out of Advent.”

And another Portsmouth church will help us remember what Epiphany is all about once Christmas has finished. St Nicholas Church in Battenburg Avenue, North End, will host its alternative worship service ‘Ethos’ at 7.30pm on January 11. Visitors will be invited to move around the church space, using multi-media installations, clay, reflections and activities to help them think about spiritual issues.

Team vicar the Rev Bev Robertson said: “The New Year is a time for looking forward, but we often don’t give ourselves time to really search ourselves, face what holds us back and let go of obstacles within us. We welcome people of faith and no faith to journey to the star and discover their Epiphany at St. Nicholas.”