WINTER LIGHTS 01/11/2008 – 28/02/2009

Following the success of Ron Haselden’s Animal, the Winter Lights project for 2006, artist Franck Scurti was commissioned to propose a second series of Winter Lights and created a Liverpool Jackpot for three Liverpool neighbourhoods in 2007.

• Click here for more information.

CHRISTMAS MARKET 23/11/2008 – 14/12/2008

• 10.30am – 16.30pm, Sundays: Croxteth
• Join the spirit of Christmas past with festive stalls inside the atmospheric Hall decorated for Christmas. For further information please contact Geraud Markets 0151 233 2165. Hall entrance fee £1.50/70p
• Disabled access, indoor event, free parking.
• Click here for more information.

SLEEPING BEAUTY – ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET 25/11/2008 – 30/11/2008

• Tchaikovsky’s glorious music and MacMillan’s classical choreography reawaken the magic of the world’s favourite fairy tale in an enchanted world of castles and curses, forests and fairies.
• Times: Tue – Sat: 7.30pm, Thu: 2pm, Sat: 2.30pm, Sun: 3pm
• Tickets: £8 – £35
• Click here for more details.

WINTER WARMER 27/11/2008

• 8pm: St John The Baptist Forest Rd/Birkenhead Rd, Meols, Wirral
• Well known Show Songs Classical Favourites, something for everyone.
• Cathedral Cantata Choir. Richard Lea Director.
• Tickets £5
• Click here for event webpage.

REINDEER RUN 30/11/2008

• Start/Finish in front of Knowsley Hall
• 10km race (£12.50 entry fee) age 15+
  5km race (£10 entry fee) age 10+
  2km Santa Saunter walk (£5 entry fee) aimed at kids/grannies/anyone who doesn’t want to run!
• All on flat, paved lanes, fenced off from open parkland. There will be several craft stalls on site selling Xmas gifts for spectators and participants to browse, as well as entertainment and some Xmassy treats! It’s a great location to watch the runners as they take part as they will start and finish directly in front of the Hall.
• Click here for more information.

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS CRAFT WORKSHOP 03/12/2008

• 17:30 – 20:30, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral
• Step back in time and prepare for Christmas as the Victorians did in this decoration and card making workshop suitable for families. Recycling materials is nothing new as the Victorians reused scraps of paper, card and material in their decorations so come along and reduce your carbon footprint Victorian style!!
• Cafe closes at 8pm
• Click here for event webpage.

OLETA ADAMS 03/12/2008

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  Oleta Adams

  Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

• Adams makes her Liverpool Philharmonic Hall debut in an evening of Gospel and Christmas classics. Accompanied by the Kingdom Choir and some of America’s finest musicians, this unforgettable artist combines her perennial hits Get Here and Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me with uplifting gospel favourites and soulful ballads.
• Tickets £21.50 – £27.50
• Click here for event webpage.

CARMEN 06/12/2008

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  Carmen at Liverpool Empire Theatre

  7.30pm: Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 1JE

• Tel: 0844 847 2525
• Carmen is the story of the beautiful bewitching gypsy girl whose tantalising beauty lures a soldier to desertion, which leads to her own murder. A magnificent traditional fully-staged opera with a large live orchestra and a brass band in a bullring setting.
• Click here for event webpage.

CHRISTMAS CAROL SERVICE 07/12/2008

• 4-6pm, Norton Priory
• An atmospheric and popular annual event in the medieval Undercroft led by the Vicar of Norton.
• Booking essential
• Click here for more information.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL AT ST GEORGE’S HALL 10/12/2008

• 6pm – 10 pm, St George’s Hall, Liverpool
• Charles Dickens was a regular visitor to Liverpool and to St George’s Hall in particular, where he would perform recitals of his works, including A Christmas Carol. On 10 April 1869 a banquet was held at St George’s Hall in his honour before he left England for America on his final literary tour. Dickens died the following year.
• Itinerary of Event
  6.00pm – North Entrance to open for Guests to arrive
  Refreshments available in Great Hall
  6.50pm – Doors to Concert Room to Open
  7.00pm – Welcome – BBC’s Mark Edwardson
  7.10pm – A Christmas Carol (Part 1) by John Bromley-Davenport
  8.10pm – Interval
  8.30pm – A Christmas Carol (Part 2) by John Bromley-Davenport
  9.45pm – Readings End
  10.00pm – Carriages
• Click here to register for tickets.

CINDERELLA 11/12/2008 – 04/01/2009

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  Cinderella

  5pm & 7pm, check dates, Liverpool Empire Theatre

  The one and only Cilla Black returns to her native city to play the Fairy Godmother, alongside actress, model and singer Jennifer Ellison as Cinderella, comedian and TV star Les Dennis as Buttons and actor Ted Robbins as Baron Hardup. Radio presenter Pete Price and Brick Up the Mersey Tunnel’s star Roy Brandon are to play the Ugly Sisters.

• Both Cilla Black and Jennifer Ellison have been interviewed by Paul O’Grady about their roles in this panto.
• TICKETS PRICED £15.00- £27.50
• Click here for more details.

SANTA SPECIALS – WIRRAL HERITAGE TRAMWAY 13/12/2008

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  Wirral Tram

  12:15 – 15:30, Woodside Ferry Terminal

• Vintage Tram
• Book now for an exciting afternoon of fun for parents and kids alike – travel with Santa’s helpers on a decorated vintage tram to Taylor Street and receive a wrapped gift from Santa in his Grotto.(Children must be accompanied)
• Tickets are available from: The Tourist Information Centre or click on to www.mtps.co.uk

SANTA SPECIAL WEEKEND AT THE NORTH WEST MUSEUM OF ROAD TRANSPORT 13/12/2008 – 14/12/2008 & 20/12/2008 – 21/12/2008

• 12 – 4pm, North West Museum of Road Transport, St Helens
• Enjoy a Santa Bus Ride in a vintage heritage bus around the bustling town of St.Helens. The ride will last approximately 20 minutes. Experience the facinating NW Museum of Road Transport. There will be tea and coffee available for the adults and and fruit juice and a mince pie for the children.
• The total cost for this event is £5.00 per person.
• Click here for event webpage.

WIRRAL FARMERS’ MARKET Saturday 13/12/2008

• 9am – 1pm: Wirral Farmers Market, New Ferry Village Hall, Grove Street, New Ferry, CH62 5AX
• Tel: 0151 643 1393
• This market has reached the final of the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.

Award-winning cheeses, quail’s eggs, sausages, Welsh Black Beef, lamb, free range chickens, smoked food, fresh fish, free range eggs, local honey, pies, plants, cakes and soups along with plenty of seasonal vegetables.

• Check out the website here.

BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR 14/12/2008

• Echo Arena Liverpool & 7pm- 9pm BBC1 & Radio 5 Live
• The show will be presented by Sue Barker and Gary Lineker.

Team GB shone in Bejing – our best performance of the century – and double gold medal – winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington and cyclist Chris Hoy, a triple champion in China, are likely to be among the leading contenders for this year’s title.

• Tickets £30
• Click here for event webpage and ticket details.

ELTON JOHN – THE RED PIANO 17/12/2008 – 18/12/2008

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  Elton John - The Red Piano

  Echo Arena, Liverpool

• Elton John said:
  “I can’t wait to see how British audiences react to the Red Piano. The show is stuffed with hits, it’s brash, bright and colourful. Over the past four years we have played almost 200 Red Piano shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and every single one has been an event – the band and I have had a ball!”
• Tickets £50 – £100
• Click here for event webpage and trailer.

BLUES CHRISTMAS PARTY & ECHO ARENA LIVERPOOL 21/12/2008

• Liverpool Echo Arena, Liverpool, Monarchs Quay, Liverpool, Merseyside L3 4FP
• Tel: 0844 8000 400

Expect an electrifying night of entertainment with a packed audience dancing to timeless soul and blues numbers such as ‘Everybody’ and ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. The show also features brand new arrangements of classic festive songs specifically re-arranged by The Black Rhino Band for this special Christmas performance.

• Tickets £27.50
• Click here for event webpage and trailer.

ORGAN RECITAL – LA NATIVITE DE SIEGNEUR 24/12/2008

• Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, Merseyside L30 4UA
• Tel: 0151 708 7283
• Recitalist Richard Lea, Organist of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Part of a series of Organ recitals celebrating the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen. Free entry with retiring collection.
• Liverpool Cathedral events page.

You can only get a nodding buster from ITV through the Paul O’ Grady show as they are specially commissioned toys. However, people who get hold of them are putting them on ebay for around £20 – see the Ebay Nodding Busters below:

<a href="http://www.24hourtrading.co.uk/buster.html" mce_href="http://www.24hourtrading.co.uk/buster.html">Click here for nodding busters</a>

Gavin & Stacey Book

Ruth Jones came on the show to talk about working on the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, whether there will be another series (they’re not sure yet) and what it was like working on the latest costume drama “Tess of the D’Urbevilles”. The Gavin & Stacey book is out for Christmas featuring:

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  Gavin and Stacey’s family trees

• Character profiles
• Maps of Barry and Billericay with key sights and landmarks
• Pam’s favourite vegetarian recipes (incl. cheese omelette)
• Nessa’s secret diary (Includes how she really met John Prescott) and a Welsh Dragon knitting pattern.
• Gavin and Stacey’s emails – before they met
• Smithy’s top night outs in Billericay
• Script extracts and jokes
• Quizzes and crosswords and much more…

It was written by Ruth Jones and James Cordon – the shows creators. £17.99 from Blackwell, £15.29 from Foyles.

Benidorm Series 2 DVD (Steve Pemberton, Johnny Vegas & Hannah Hobley)

Johnny Vegas went on Paul O’ Grady to promote the new DVD of “Benidorm”, talking about how he had met some characters just like Geoff Maltby. When asked by Paul whether he had calmed down at all, Johnny responded that he was about to say “yes” until he thought about his last time in Benidorm, running down the street with a homeless lady’s trolley at 3am in the morning. They also talked about the character “Geoff” who gets to go on a date with a teenage mother while his Mum/PA babysits “Coolio” – his date’s son.

Released 17/11/2008: Pre-order from Play.com £17.99 with free delivery.

Known as ‘The Oracle’ because of his computer-like knowledge of trivial facts and figures, Geoff Maltby is on holiday with his mother, or PA as he calls her, but keen to hide the fact.

Paul O’Grady often features the latest and greatest products, but we’d love to get hold of a Nodding Buster for ourselves! It would make a great Christmas present for someone you know is a big fan of the show – a really unique gift too.

Bubble Stream Bacon Bubble Maker

Joe Pasquale was standing in for Paul O’ Grady on the Paul O’Grady Show today (Wednesday 5th November) and he showed off this bacon sizzle flavoured bubble maker for dogs. You wouldn’t want to use it on yourself, but this is a great toy for dogs as they will chase the scented bubbles all over the place. A good present for kids to play with too. It’s £9.99 and comes in “K9″ for dogs or “Kitty” for cats. Click here to buy. Get 5% off everything from pet-supermarket.co.uk by entering “intro5” at the check out page. Offer ends 31st December 2008.

Paul O' Grady

Some of you may have watched Paul O’Grady’s afternoon show on Thursday 30th October. He joined two little boys and challenged them to a wii dance-off. The boys told him he was “rubbish” but the game looked quite good. The dancing now involves your arms as well as your legs!

Dancing Stage Hottest Party + Dance Mat (Wii) £43.99

This is the new dance game designed to be used with the Wii:

Dancing Stage Hottest Party is sure to be the life of the party with 4 player multiplayer, Wii Remote and Nunchuk support, smash hits taken from the last 4 decades of music, entirely new modes and more.

Get all your Nintendo Wii hardware here - from charging docks to drivers to leads. Get yourself kitted up fo Christmas.

One Christmas, some relatives brought some eye toys for everyone to play on. We had competitive kareoke (called Singstar) and obstacle courses which relied on a webcam-type thing. It was a really good fun and even the grandparents joined in! The kareoke playlist included some olden goldies such as Frank Sinatra, so no-one felt excluded. It’s a good distraction for a big family – better than endless hours of monopoly. Eye toys work with Playstation 2.

If you’re about to change mobile phone contract, it is possible to get a free Wii with your new phone. Vodafone are doing special gift offers which include things like Guitar Hero.