Full Abbey for Christmas Services
Tuesday, 4th January 2011
Christmas services at Westminster Abbey attracted near-capacity congregations to the Abbey church this year.
Over 2,000 people attended the Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve with 900 taking Holy Communion.
The Abbey church was virtually full at just over 2,000 for the Christmas Day Eucharist with 1,200 communicants and Evensong that day attracted around 900 people.
This year the Abbey held a Christmas Eve Crib service for families which attracted around 250.
This was also the first year that the Abbey held two ticketed Services of Lessons & Carols. The service on 23 December attracted 1,800 people and 2,100 people on 24 December. The demand for tickets was high for both services and the ticketing system was well received.
Once again the BBC Special Events broadcast team used a camera position on the roof of the Abbey's Lady Chapel for television coverage of the New Year’s Eve fireworks in London. The crew were joined by a photographer from Getty Images whose pictures of the fireworks display were syndicated worldwide.
