Father Christmas made his grand entrance on a horse and cart waving to all and sundry at Clayton Hall last Saturday.

So Christmas has arrived! My children were roped in to assist Santa Claus dole out presents to excited children. And part of the package (at an astoundingly low price) was to have your photo taken with Santa himself.

Santa was nicely situated next to the chimney in the loving refurbished dining room which was laid with a sumptuous Victorian Christmas feast.

Once they got their prezzies the children went upstairs where the proud parent could choose the photo they wanted printing. Then it was off to the craft room to make a card frame decorated with snowmen, Father Christmases or Christmas trees.

Plus if they wanted they could make snowmen decorated carry bags for carrying home the decorated frame. And also colour in some rather attractive tree ornaments. Even I did a rather jolly little Father Christmas decoration.

So yet again the year draws to a close at Clayton Hall. And we’re all eagerly looking forward to further rooms being opened to the public so that they can see how a Victorian family might have lived. If they lived in a Hall surrounded by a moat, that is!

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There’s still feverish activity at the new Clayton Hall Museum as everybody finishes the painting, adjusting the pictures and placing the food in the most artistic way they can.

The Clayton Hall Museum is obviously going to be an ongoing project with furniture added and changed. Room dressing changed from time to time. Maybe even the guides will take turns! It’s certainly expected that more rooms will be opened up for the museum as time goes on.

There’s a unique opportunity for you to see the results of months of hard graft when Clayton Hall Museum actually opens on Saturday 28th November at 1pm until 4pm for viewing. There will be people on hand to answer questions and tell you something about the rooms.

I’ve been asked if I could help man the event. Is that called volunteering?

Anyway, I will be there. So look out for a slightly sleep deprived person who will still to do his best to answer your questions as intelligently as possible!

The museum itself is half of Clayton Hall and has been dressed to show the Halls’ Victorian period. The other half of the Hall has residents, some of whom are apparently ghosts,

Clayton Hall is one of the few remaining moated manor houses in England and you reach the hall over a nice little bridge.

I look forward to welcoming you to the Clayton Hall Museum Victorian experience on Saturday, for one day only (at least from me anyway).

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Today I was helping at the Clayton Hall summer event where I was given the task of looking after, and selling, a table full of books.

The park is a nice little one set in front of the old Clayton Hall and both it and the Hall are surrounded by a moat. Although at the moment the moat remains dry. You can see the bridge across the moat going from the trees to the middle of bottom of the picture, shown to the right.

Unfortunately the crowds didn’t descend on us this year although we did get a fairly steady amount of people arriving over the few hours we were there.

The event was a little bit of fun, and had the brilliant opportunity for people to buy books too!

I think the reasons for the lack of crowds are many.

Firstly because the event was held across the moat and is concealed by trees and buses anyone casually walking past wouldn’t notice it.

Secondly, it would be interesting to see whether the day we held it (Saturday) made any difference to families with children. That is would they rather go somewhere further away or into Manchester, or to watch a football match on this sort of a day? What do you think?

Thirdly, the weather was a bit unkind early on and it bucketed down for the first half hour. After that it brightened and the blue skies made a welcome return. So maybe the weather had some effect, although other events that had rain actually seemed to make no difference to the crowd.

Fourthly, as my wife Kay pointed out, although all the schools had posters about the event, it was unlikely that the children would tell their parents about it. I mean we have 4 children and I’ve never heard of them make any mention of any posters that are up in school – and yes there are actually quite a few. So maybe a simple letter telling parents could be slipped into the bag of each primary school child, before the last day of the summer term? At least that way the parents could see it and decide for themselves whether they and other children could attend.

It does seem a bit of a shame for so much effort to go into organising an event that children would definitely enjoy and not to have the hordes we know would enjoy it. Maybe you can think of a more likely reason that people didn’t attend this year? If so let me know and I’ll pass it on to the merry band of souls who do such sterling work in Clayton Hall.

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Clayton Hall’s Christmas event starts at one pm today.

Father Christmas will be stationed in the hall and giving out presents. And if anything like last time arriving resplendent with his horse and cart and attendant elves.

I’ve been assured that there will be crafts aplenty and of course the ever present and welcome cafe run by the friends of Clayton Park (where Clayton Hall is located).

I didn’t think to ask whether there would be Christmas music but hopefully there will be.

And last time children got to have their photos taken with Santa, which seemed like fun for them.

Maybe I’ll see you there?

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The Friends of Clayton Park held a “Fun Day” for kids at Clayton Park and Clayton Hall. And the weather was lovely and sunny.

Maybe that’s why they got less people than they did last year. Perhaps everyone had the urge, lemming-like, to leap into their cars and rush for the seaside, or Blackpool.

Whatever the reason a much increased and roomier event was not as busy as last years.

And that was a great shame because the really popular obstacle course was longer and more interesting. The crafts kids could take part in were more extensive. Of course the bouncy castle and slides were also there for kids to go on.

And to round it all off the Fire Brigade turned up to show interested children around and let them see what was in a fire engine.

The event also had a rather nice little cafe, set next to Clayton Hall where I went for a relaxing cup of tea.

For the next event I’ll provide a few weeks warning through a blog posting so you’ll know to go along.

The next event at Clayton Vale – a completely different location but run by some of the same friends – is the Halloween Howler. Nearly 2,000 people came for a scary walk through the Vale last year. And again I’ll give you a few weeks notice so you can polish up your pitchfork and lantern.

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For the last few years the Friends of Clayton Park, in Clayton, have run a Christmas event at Clayton Hall. Father Christmas has arrived in his sleigh (or horse and cart) and dispensed presents from his temporary location in the front room of Clayton Hall. Obviously attended to by many elves and last year 3 of them were my daughters!

Last year the Friends had a brass band with the intention of providing seasonal music for the happy hoardes of Father Christmas seekers, just near the refreshments tent.

Unfortunately the band wasn’t allowed to play Christmas carols because it was felt it might cause offence.

And the different band they have this year is apparently going to get the same message.

At the time it struck me as political incorrectness gone mad.

And Kay, my wife, pointed out that everyone knew it was a Christmas event, which funnily enough has Christ in the title. So anyone who doesn’t want to be involved with anything that isn’t of their own religion, or simply doesn’t believe in anything can avoid it.

In addition she noted that if she’d gone to an event and the event organiser had said, “Quick, stop doing ‘X’ otherwise we might offend Kay” she’d have been upset because she’d stopped people from enjoying their event in the way they wanted and possibly how they always did it.

So does that mean that the council have discriminated against people who want to hear a brass band play carols at a Christmas event?

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