Newsletter: Friday 20th December 2024

5 days to Christmas

With just 5 days to go until Christmas, Yorkshire is brimming with festive cheer, from enchanting markets and captivating concerts to community events—discover all the upcoming celebrations and highlights in this week’s newsletter!

The picture above is from York Christmas market on Parliament Street.

Advent winners

Please check email inboxes. If a Yorkshire.com email is in spam, please click “not spam”.

For those with a winner’s notification, please email back with a postal address – if your email is not getting through, please try info@yorkshire.com:

• Day 1: Yorkshire Dales Monopoly Board Game – Winner: J. F.
• Day 2: Christmas Heart Rag Wreath – Winner: R. D.
• Day 3: Yorkshire Candle Company Gift Pack – Winner: J. H.
• Day 4: Canvas Overnight Bag – Helmsley by Rydale – Winner: M. Wells
• Day 5: Christmas hamper by Cartwright & Butler – Winner: L. G.
• Day 6: Yorkshire Treats Hamper by WF Hall – Winner: P.H.
• Day 7: Selection of Yorkshire jigsaws – Winner: M.S.
• Day 8: Scott&Co Ground Coffee Gift – Winner: S.M.O.
• Day 9: Marks & Spencer’s Christmas Cake – Winner: S. C.
• Day 10: Emma Ball Notecards – Winner: S. A-Tatum
• Day 11: Yorkshire Calendar 2025 – Winner: L.W.
• Day 12: Vintage Map of Yorkshire – Winner: M. Pears
• Day 13: Yorkshire Relishes & Preserves – Winner: H. Shearsmith
• Day 14: Bettys Christmas Afternoon Tea Gift Box – Winner: J. Gale
• Day 15: OS Maps of Yorkshire – Winner: S.A-Jones
• Day 16: Christmas Collection of Yorkshire Dressings and Bread Dippers – Winner: J.H.
• Day 17: The complete James Herriot book set – Still open! Click here to enter.
• Day 18: A a bottle of gin by Mason’s of Yorkshire – Still open! Click here to enter.
• Day 19: An ice-skating session for a family of 4 – Still open! Click here to enter.
• Day 20: Two winter-theme mugs by Emma Bateman – Still open! Click here to enter.

Find the full advent calendar here.

Concerts and events coming up in Yorkshire

Check out these concerts, performances and events taking place in Yorkshire over the coming week:

• Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at First Direct Arena, Leeds on December 20th, 2024 6:30pm
• Cinderella at Scarborough Spa Theatre on December 21st, 2024 6:00pm
• Disney On Ice presents Road Trip Adventures at Utilita Arena Sheffield on December 22nd, 2024 2:30pm
• Elf the Musical at First Direct Arena, Leeds on December 23rd, 2024 7:00pm
• Crib service @ York Minster on 24th December, 2024 11:30am
• Joint Christmas service @ Beverley Minster on 25th December, 2024, 10:30am
• Horse Racing at Wetherby on Thursday, December 26, 2024
• Slade UK at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on December 27th, 2024 7:30pm
• Chaos Bleak – All My Thorns – Iamimperfect – Doberwoman – Black Rai at Fulford Arms, York on December 28th, 2024 5:30pm
• Horse Racing at Doncaster on Sunday, December 29, 2024
• Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland in York until January 5th, 2025 – every day except Christmas Day

Yorkshire news

The Alhambra Theatre in Bradford is bringing festive cheer with its inclusive pantomime Pinocchio, offering a variety of Access Performances—including Relaxed, Sign Language Interpreted, Audio Described, and Captioned shows—to ensure everyone can enjoy the magic of theatre this season.

Scarborough-based Unity Racing, a team of four students from Scarborough UTC, won the Pit Display and Digital Media Awards at the 2024 Aramco F1 in Schools World Finals in Saudi Arabia, showcasing world-class engineering and branding against 55 teams from 25 countries.

As 2024 ends, Historic England has added 17 special historic sites to its National Heritage List, including two from Yorkshire—a 1920s Arts and Crafts maternity ward and a Victorian electricity junction box in Huddersfield—highlighting the rich stories of England’s past.

The 10th Dark Skies Festival in the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales (14 February–2 March 2025) celebrates stargazing, dark sky conservation, and community engagement with inspiring events like Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock’s talk, astronomy evenings, and family activities under some of the UK’s clearest skies.

A look at the history of Wath Methodist Chapel with Dr Emma Wells

“…Its unusual five-sided shape, however, is not technically intentional nor is it a regular pentagon. In fact, it was a product of the irregular plot of land available for the structure at the time….”