Every year for the last 50 years, children and adults of all ages have come together to stick sweets on cocktail sticks, stick them in an orange, put a candle on top and gather together.
This is Christingle.
The lighting of Christingle candles celebrates Jesus and raises money for the work of the Children’s Society. It's unclear where the orange part of the object came from. It has echoes of the scented pomander, which can be an orange studded with cloves.
Taking place between Advent and Candlemas, a Christingle celebration allows adults and children share a joyful and memorable tradition first celebrated in a Moravian church in Marienborn, Germany in 1747.
The first Christingle service was held in Lincoln Cathedral in 1968. Today, over 5,400 Christingles are held across the country, but here we pay tribute to those first Christingle churches.
Light a Christingle candle and help the most vulnerable children in our communities.